CAA News Today

The Americans for the Arts Action Fund has completed its preliminary report of the “2005 Election Impact on the Arts.” The report shows that citizens voted overwhelmingly for proarts ballot initiatives and candidates throughout the country. While 2005 is considered an off year for national and most statewide elections, hundreds of local elections took place in communities across the country; two statewide elections in New Jersey and Virginia were also notable exceptions.

Four local ballot initiatives having a positive direct impact on the arts and arts education passed by large margins, as well as one statewide ballot that could potentially benefit the arts. “2005 Election Impact on the Arts” contains details of these ballots initiatives as well as highlights of the arts policy positions of Governor-Elect Jon Corzine of New Jersey and Governor-Elect Tim Kaine of Virginia, as well as top city mayors across the country.

CAA is a national cosponsor of Arts Advocacy Day and Humanities Advocacy Day. We encourage all members to participate in both events.

Humanities Advocacy Day takes place March 1-2, 2006. Held in Washington, D.C., this event provides a unique opportunity for concerned citizens to communicate to Congress the vital importance of federal support for research and education in the humanities.

Arts Advocacy Day takes place March 13-14, 2006. Also held in Washington, D.C., this event brings together a broad cross-section of America’s national cultural organizations to underscore the importance of developing strong public policies and appropriating increased public funding for the arts, the humanities, and arts education, as well as other programs within the federal government that have an impact on the visual and performing arts.

Congress approved the final FY 2006 Interior appropriations bill on July 29th, and the President signed it into law on August 2. The bill (H.R. 2361), which supports a number of cultural programs, was passed with an internal 0.476 percent across-the-board rescission. The National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts each received a $5 million increase on the House and Senate floors , which was reduced to a net increase of $4.4 million for the NEA and $4.3 million for the NEH after the rescission. Total FY 2006 funding for NEA currently stands at $125,660,000 and the NEH at $142,373,000. Should additional government-wide rescissions be imposed, these would almost certainly be applied to the Interior bill, further reducing funding for NEA, NEH and other programs.

United States Small Business Administration (SBA) [http://www.sba.gov/index.html] Arts organizations currently can immediately pursue low-interest Physical Disaster Business Loans from SBA, which cover property losses that are not insured or are underinsured. Unfortunately, nonprofit groups are not allowed to apply for SBA Economic Injury loans, which provide working capital. A coalition led by the YMCA of the USA has been formed to try to change this policy. To learn more and to get talking points for writing your representatives please click here.

Congress has passed two very large emergency relief packages totaling $62 billion, most of which has gone to FEMA. Museums, nonprofit arts organizations that are located in historic buildings, and government agencies may be able to qualify for FEMA assistance. Congress is now working on a third “supplemental” package, which will have a broader range. Negotiations are currently under way to allocate up to $20 million of relief funding through the National Endowment for the Arts for grants. These supplemental bills are all for FY 2006 funding. Another possibility is that additional arts funding would be wrapped into a fourth package or, more remotely, could be included in appropriations for FY 2007.

In addition to Katrina relief appropriations, Congress has passed a tax relief package for disaster survivors along with a tax incentive package for charitable giving to all nonprofits. In order to help ensure that charitable giving to non-Katrina causes does not suffer, Congress passed an emergency tax bill that significantly raises the charitable deduction limits on individual gifts for the rest of this calendar year. Under previous law, individuals could deduct cash gifts up to 50 percent of their income. Now through December 31, 2005, individuals may deduct up to 100 percent of their income for both Katrina and non-Katrina causes. Obviously, this affects only people who are wealthy enough to give away so much of their annual income. Nevertheless, the bill should result in increased giving, both to hurricane-related and to other causes.

Source: Americans for the Arts

Please contact your Senators and Representatives to tell their party leadership and the chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to support the $37.4 million for IMLS approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee in H.R. 3010. A funding increase for IMLS is in the works as the House approved an additional $1 million and the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $3 million increase over the agency’s FY 2005 funds. The House and Senate will need to negotiate these differences before sending a final version to the President for approval. If approved, these modest gains in funding will enable the agency to support more grants to help deliver museum services to the public. Tell your representatives that the people in your community benefit from the support IMLS offers our nation’s museums. To contact your Senators and Representatives please click here.

The Heritage Emergency Task Force is encouraging museums hit by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to fill out FEMA’s Request for Public Assistance Form (FEMA Form 90-49) as soon as possible so they can be assigned a case number. The one-page form does not require specific damages so institutions may file even if staff have not been able to perform a damage assessment.

Congress has approved and the President has signed a FY 2006 legislative branch spending bill that includes funding for two major conservation projects for the Library of Congress and completion of a six-year effort to reengineer the Copyright Office for the digital age.

The bill (H.R. 2985) includes a 2006 Library budget that totals $602.9 million, consisting of a net appropriation of $560.6 million plus authority to spend off-setting collections of $42.3 million.

In addition, Congress approved the Library’s requested $40.7 million in a FY 2006 budget for the Architect of the Capitol to begin construction of materials storage Modules 3 and 4 at Ft. Meade, Maryland, and $5.5 million to renovate Madison Building space to accommodate new information technology infrastructure, more efficient work flows and new job roles for the Copyright Office.

The President signed the bill into law on August 2.

Source: National Humanities Alliance

Congress has approved and the President has signed a FY 2006 legislative branch spending bill that includes funding for two major conservation projects for the Library of Congress and completion of a six-year effort to reengineer the Copyright Office for the digital age.

The bill (H.R. 2985) includes a 2006 Library budget that totals $602.9 million, consisting of a net appropriation of $560.6 million plus authority to spend off-setting collections of $42.3 million.

In addition, Congress approved the Library’s requested $40.7 million in a FY 2006 budget for the Architect of the Capitol to begin construction of materials storage Modules 3 and 4 at Ft. Meade, Maryland, and $5.5 million to renovate Madison Building space to accommodate new information technology infrastructure, more efficient work flows and new job roles for the Copyright Office.

The President signed the bill into law on August 2.

Source: National Humanities Alliance