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Yesterday, the U.S. House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee approved a bill that calls for the National Endowment for the Arts to be funded at $145 million in FY 2018.
This is an encouraging sign that appropriators aren't following the Administration's budget outline which recommended eliminating the NEA. However, it still represents a $5 million cut from FY 2017 funding levels and falls short of the $155 million requested by a record bipartisan group of 155 members of Congress.
As arts advocates, it's important to continue developing relationships with our lawmakers and telling our stories about the importance of the arts at the federal, state, and local level. There will be more points along the way as the proposal moves through the House and into the Senate - a process likely to extend all the way through late Fall of 2017 before anything is finalized.