Congress Rejects Administration, Increases Funding for NEA and Afterschool

Following a wave of advocacy from communities across the country, including Arts Advocacy Day in D.C. March 12-13, Congress has released an omnibus bill for FY18 that includes an increase in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and 21st Century Community Learning Centers. Both the NEA and the NEH were funded at $152.849 million and 21st Century received a $20 million dollar boost.

According to Americans for the Arts, “This victory is such a fitting tribute to last week’s passing of Congressional Arts Caucus Co-Chair Representative Louise Slaughter, who spent her career in Congress fighting for the arts. She had most recently co-authored an Arts Advocacy Day ‘Dear Colleague’ letter to her fellow Members of Congress recruiting a record number of 166 House Democrats and Republicans to sign a joint letter to House Appropriators to increase arts funding in America.”

Through the Arts Action Fund, Grassroots arts advocates sent close to 200,000 messages to Members of Congress, thousands more signed our petitions and visited their elected Representatives and Senators.

You can learn more about the victory for the NEA here and about the boost in funding for afterschool programming here.

Published: March 20, 2018