Legislative update

On June 20, the U.S. House of Representatives considered the FY 1997
Interior Appropriations bill, which contains funding for the
cultural agencies (National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National
Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute of Museum
Services (IMS).

An amendment by Reps. John Shadegg (R-AZ), Helen Chenoweth (R-ID),
and David McIntosh (R-IN) to reduce funding for the NEH by $12
million failed on a vote of 254 against and 168 for. The House vote
includes $104.5 for NEH, 99.4 for NEA, and 21 million for IMS.  This
represents level funding for NEA and IMS and approximately $5 cut
from NEH.

The report language accompanying the House Interior Appropriations
bill for FY 1997 still states that the appropriations are
"consistent with the agreement reached on the floor of the House
during debate over the fiscal year 1996 Interior appropriation bill
in terms of the proposed reauthorization in the House Legislation
Committee to phase out federal funding for the NEA over a two year
period."  This means elimination of funding for NEA after 1997.

The House vote is considered a hearty rebuke to the White House,
which had requested $136 million each for NEA and NEH and $23
million for IMS.

The next step is to work with the Senate staff to try to get rid of
the report language eliminating the NEA.  Please call or write to
your Senators and urge them to support funding for the cultural
agencies and especially elimination of the report language.  Senate
members can be reached through the Capitol switchboard at:
202-224-3121.

Sarah Z. Rosenberg
Executive Director
AIC
1717 K St., NW Ste. 301
Washington, DC 20006
202-452-9545
Fax: 202-452-9328

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 10:2
                   Distributed: Monday, June 24, 1996
                        Message Id: cdl-10-2-001
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