Artsramble Archive

Back to On to Oz Studio Andrea Gomez

 

June 20, 2006
Will Arts Funding Be Cut?
by artsRambler

Although this is time sensitive information and certain deadlines may have passed by the time we upload this or you read it, we are publishing this letter from Arts North Carolina, an arts advocacy group locally. Please visit their website: www.artsnc.org

June 13, 2006

Dear Arts Advocate:

Earlier today the Committee on Appropriations of the U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation that would slash funding for public broadcasting and arts education programs. Please visit Americans for the Arts E-Advocacy Center to urge your Representative to vote to restore the funding to these vital programs when the bill comes to the floor later this month. Background:Today’s House Committee activity approved action taken last week by the House Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations that cut $115 million from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the primary agency for our nation’s public television and radio broadcasting, and zeroed-out a $36 million funding pool for arts education programs through the U.S. Department of Education. Unfortunately, both of these cuts had also been requested in the President’s FY 2007 budget. Only one amendment to partially restore $20 million in funding back to CPB was adopted in full committee today, which would still leave the agency with a devastating cut.We expect that when the full House debates the bill, it will consider a floor amendment to fully restore the public broadcasting funds. A similar scenario occurred last year, when thousands of calls and emails from grassroots advocates from around the country helped to convince the House to reverse the cuts. A bipartisan group of representatives led the fight last year, and we expect them to do so again this year, including Reps. David Obey (D-WI), Jim Leach (R-IA), and Nita Lowey (D-NY). For the sixth straight year, the House Appropriations Committee has eliminated funding for the Department of Education's arts education programs. As in the past, we will likely have to rely on the Senate to fully restore funding for these important programs.Next StepsIn the next few weeks the full House of Representatives will consider the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill on the floor. We hope you will make your voices heard! Please visit our E-Advocacy Center to send a message to your Members of Congress protesting the proposed funding cuts to public broadcasting and arts education. Thank you again for your continued support of the arts!

[And here is a list of The Budget Bill Conferees:

Senator Marc Basnight Marcb@ncleg.net
Senator Tony Rand Tonyr@ncleg.net
Senator Walter Dalton Walterd@ncleg.net
Senator Linda Garrou Lindag@ncleg.net
Senator Kay Hagan Kayh@ncleg.net
Speaker Jim Black Jimb@ncleg.net
Representative Debbie Clary Debbiec@ncleg.net
Representative Jim Crawford Jimcr@ncleg.net
Representative Beverly Earle Beverlye@ncleg.net
Representative Joe Hackney Joeh@ncleg.net
Representative Wilma Sherrill Wilmas@ncleg.net
Representative Edd Nye Eddn@ncleg.net
Representative Bill Owens Billo@ncleg.net]