NEA and NEH funding

On July 15 the U.S. House of Representatives passed the House
version of the FY'98 Interior Appropriations Bill by a vote of 238
to 192.  This bill which carries zero funding for the NEA now moves
to the Senate for consideration where it is anticipated that funding
will be restored at $99.5 million. Senator Gorton (R-WA) was quoted
on NPR confirming this and that he expects to mark-up the Interior
Bill in subcomittee on Friday, July 18.  The full Senate Committee
on Appropriations, chaired by Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) is
tentatively expected to mark-up the bill on July 22.

On July 15, the House also defeated an amendment offered by Steve
Chabot (R-OH) to eliminate the NEH in a resounding vote of 96 to
328.  This reflects a 38% decrease in the number of  House opponents
to the NEH.

In good news from the Senate side, Senators Jeffords (R-VT), Kennedy
(D-MA), and Chafee (R-RI) intend to introduce a bill to reauthorize
both the NEA and NEH for five years at $175 million each for FY'98.
They intend to mark-up the bill in committee on July 23.

Please continue to contact your congressional delegations and urge
them to support full funding for both agencies. We are particularly
grateful to the following House republicans who despite confronting
overwhelming opposition from the House GOP leadership have
consistently voted for the arts and humanities on every issue: Reps.
Mike Castle (R-DE), Rick Lazio (R-NY), Connie Morella (R-MD), Jack
Quinn (R-NY), and Jim Ramstad (R-MN).  Please thank these Members of
Congress for their wonderful work, even if they are not your
representatives.  Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.

ps This is likely to be my last message from AIC as I hope to be
retiring very soon.  Thanks for listening and keep up the good work.
I will continue to speak out for the importance of the conservation
profession to our national well-being and will be staying in the DC
area doing a bit of consulting.

Sarah Z. Rosenberg

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:10
                   Distributed: Friday, July 18, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-11-10-001
                                  ***