CAA News Today

On March 6, 2003, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Museum and Library Services Act of 2003 (H.R. 13), a bill to reauthorize the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The authorization allows up to $35 million for the Museum Services program and $210 for the Library Services and Technology program.

In early February, President George W. Bush’s fiscal year 2004 budget was released, which calls for increases to both the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) over their 2003 amounts.

The NEH in particular has received the largest requested increase in several years’ Bush is asking for an additional $25 million for the endowment’s We the People initiative on American history, culture, and civics. The president has also requested a total of $117 million for the NEA in the coming year, which is a very modest increase in the endowment’s budget over the previous year, and will only account for mandated cost-of-living increases.

Congress will draft its own version of the president’s budget over the next several months, with the goal of having it finalized in October 2003.

CAA cosponsored Humanities Advocacy Day (February 25, 2003), hosted by the National Humanities Alliance, and Arts Advocacy Day (March 26, 2003), hosted by Americans for the Arts, in Washington, D.C. Both events brought together a broad cross-section of national cultural organizations, academics, and grassroots arts leaders to promote the arts, arts education, and humanities to Congress through increased support for the federal cultural agencies.

CAA representatives Susan Ball, Richard Selden, and Marta Teegen visited the offices of several key members of the Senate and House Interior Appropriations Subcommittees, which deal directly with funding for the federal cultural agencies, and met with other legislators during both advocacy events.

For Humanities Advocacy Day, an event that focuses on increased support for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Ball and Teegen called for Congress to support President George W. Bush’s budget request of $152 million for the NEH, a $26 million increase over the current fiscal year. Much of the proposed increase will go to fund the NEH’s We the People initiative to advance understanding of American history, culture, and civics. It is very important to note the program is currently administered within, but not officially funded by, the NEH. Should We the People be properly funded, it will become its own program at the NEH-grant applications dealing with American history, culture, and civics will go to this new program instead of the various other program divisions at NEH, as is currently the case. Consequently, a properly funded We the People will free up money for other NEH programs, including Preservation & Access and Research Grants.

At Arts Advocacy Day, CAA representatives Ball and Selden focused on several important arts policy matters during visits to Capitol Hill. They urged Congress to appropriate $170 million in funds for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), $53 million above the current fiscal year. The NEA has never recovered from the 40 percent budget cut it received in 1996, and its programs are woefully underfunded. Moreover, CAA’s representatives called on Congress to support President Bush’s budget request of $34.43 million for the Office of Museum Services, a division within the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Ball joined members of the New York delegation to Arts Advocacy Day on visits to the offices of Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Amo Houghton (R-NY), both of whom serve on the House Ways and Means Committee (Rangel is the ranking member), which has jurisdiction over all tax policies, including proposed legislation calling for fair-market-value tax deductions for artists. Identical bills have been introduced in the House and Senate again this year to allow artists to deduct contributions of their artworks at full market value. Representatives Houghton and Ben Cardin (D-MD) introduced H.R. 806 Artists’ Contribution to American Heritage Act of 2003, and Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Robert Bennett (R-UT) introduced S. 287 Artist-Museum Partnership Act. Both bills continue to have strong bipartisan support, though it is still unclear when in the coming year either of them will be voted on.

Other issues raised on Arts Advocacy Day concerned improving the visa process for visiting international artists and scholars. Many nonprofit organizations confront untenable delays and uncertainties while getting approval of visa petitions for international guest artists and scholars. While current law requires a maximum fourteen-day process, it now takes the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) up to 120 days to process visa petitions in the categories most used by visiting artists. Delays began in June 2001, when the INS adopted a Premium Processing Service, which guarantees processing within fifteen days upon payment of an additional $1,000; however, most nonprofit organizations cannot afford such a fee. Arts advocates called on Congress to urge the INS to adopt immediate reforms that will ensure timely processing of visa petitions related to nonprofit arts groups.

CAA’s representatives also advocated for an increase in appropriations for cultural exchanges through the U.S. Department of State. They specifically urged Congress to boost funding by $10 million for the Cultural Programs Division, which currently receives only $2 million. This division funds international educational exchange and training programs and supports partnerships among museums around the world.

-Marta Teegen, CAA director of governance and advocacy

CAA will again be a national cosponsor of two arts and humanities advocacy events in Washington, D.C., this year.

Humanities Advocacy Day will take place February 24-25, 2003. Advocates from across the country will have the opportunity to promote federal support for the humanities. For information on how to get involved, please visit the National Humanities Alliance website.

Arts Advocacy Day will take place March 25-26, 2003. The event gives grassroots advocates the opportunity to shape federal arts policy. For information on how to get involved, please visit the Americans For the Arts website.

CAA encourages all of its members to communicate the value of the arts and humanities to the newly elected Congress by participating in both Humanities Advocacy Day and Arts Advocacy Day.

At press time, Congress had passed yet another Continuing Resolution (CR), once again postponing action on the annual appropriations, including those for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and virtually the entire federal government, except for the Pentagon. The recently passed CR gives the new Republican-controlled 108th Congress until January 11, 2003, to make changes and decisions about federal-agency appropriations for fiscal year 2003. As a result of this, most federal agencies will continue to operate at last year’s appropriation levels for what will be at least a quarter of the new fiscal year.

With the results of the November 2002 election now in, Senate Democrats will lose their committee chairs when the 108th Congress convenes. The House subcommittee that oversees the budget for NEA and NEH will also get a new chair as Representative Joe Skeen (R-NM) retired. When the new Congress begins to address the fiscal year 2003 budget, deep cuts to domestic programs are expected in an attempt to come closer to the President’s spending-level recommendations. Whether or not the 108th Congress will reduce the funding increases for the NEA and NEH that the House approved last July remains to be seen.

At press time, not a single appropriations bill for fiscal year 2003 had been presented to President George W. Bush for his signature. Indeed, the House-Senate conference committee was still debating amendments to the Interior Appropriations Bill, which includes funds for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). As reported in the September 2002 issue of CAA News, the U.S. House of Representatives approved an amendment last July to increase funding by $10 million for the NEA (for a total of $127 million) and $5 million for the NEH (for a total of $131.9 million) over President Bush’s fiscal year 2003 budget request; however, it is not at all clear that the Senate will agree to these increases. Congress will most likely finish work on a majority of the spending bills, including the Interior Appropriations Bill, after the November elections.

In addition to appropriations bills, there are a number of other legislative initiatives ready for a vote, including the Museum and Library Services Act of 2002 (H.R. 3784), a reauthorization measure for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

The existing authorization for the agency was scheduled to expire on September 30, 2002. Both the House and Senate have finished work on the reauthorization bill, but it is currently stalled in the House. Representative Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), chairman of the Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Select Education, wrote a letter to the House leadership, calling on them to schedule a vote on this important measure before the current IMLS authorization expired. A vote had not been scheduled at press time.

In the coming year, it will be more important than ever for people working in the arts and humanities to advocate for increased federal funding for arts and cultural programs, since they are often the first programs to be cut in an economic recession. The federal budget process begins in February 2002, we urge you to participate in the following arts and humanities advocacy events in Washington, DC, co-sponsored by CAA : Arts Advocacy Day, March 11-12, 2002, and Jefferson Day, March 21-22, 2002. Both events will bring together artists, scholars, and others to express the importance of federal support for the arts and humanities to Congressional leaders.

If you would like to receive email notification of Advocacy Action Alerts, please contact Rebecca Cederholm, CAA manager of governance, and advocacy, at recederholm@collegeart.org with the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject field and your email address in the body of the e-mail.
-Marta Teegen, Manager of Governance, Advocacy, & Special Projects