IMPORTANT UPDATE – NOVEMBER 3, 2023

Congratulations, museums advocates! On Nov. 2 advocates around the country mobilized through AAM’s online action center and additional messages to their Representatives, urging them to oppose amendments offered by Representative Scott Perry (R-PA) to the FY 2024 House Interior Appropriations bill to eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). During House floor consideration both amendments were resoundingly rejected with strong bipartisan majorities and neither passed. (The amendment to defund the NEA failed 129 – 292 and the NEH 132 – 292. Please take a moment to thank your Representative if they voted “no” on these devastating amendments.) There is a long way to go in the remaining FY 2024 appropriations process and the Alliance will continue to monitor for any additional threats to programs that support museums. Our continued advocacy for museums will be critical in the weeks ahead. Thank you for your advocacy for museums, it matters!

 

Advocacy Alert – November 2, 2023

URGENT: HOUSE TO VOTE ON NEA & NEH ELIMINATION – CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TODAY!

The U.S. House of Representatives today is scheduled to begin consideration of spending measures on the House floor, including the Interior, Environment & Related Agencies Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 appropriations bill (H.R. 4821), which contains funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). During debate on the bill, Representative Scott Perry (R-PA-10) is expected to offer two separate amendments that would eliminate funding for each agency.

We need immediate response from museum advocates to prevent passage of these devastating amendments.

ACTION NEEDED: Please call your Representative now and urge them to oppose the Perry amendments! You can also use our template to send a message to your Representative’s office as well.

MESSAGE: Please oppose the Perry amendments (#60 & #61) to the Interior appropriations bill that would eliminate funding for the NEA and NEH, respectively.

Urge Your Rep. to OPPOSE Elimination of NEH & NEA

Talking Points for Your Phone Call or Voicemail:

• I urge you to oppose the Perry amendments and to support annual funding of at least $186.3 million each for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in the FY 2024 Interior appropriation bill. These programs are critical to museums’ ability to serve their communities as economic and educational assets.
• The NEH provides direct grants to museums, universities, archives, and libraries in support of research, education, and preservation. Due to high demand and extremely limited funding, NEH is only able to fund a small percentage of the proposals it receives. NEH also funds humanities councils in every state and U.S. territory, which sponsor family literacy programs, speakers’ bureaus, cultural heritage tourism, exhibitions, and live performances.
• Established in 1965, the NEA supports great art in every congressional district. NEA grants to museums help them exhibit, preserve, and interpret art through exhibitions, residencies, publications, commissions, public art works, conservation, documentation, and public programs, including the performing arts. Grants are also awarded for research, including on the benefits of museum field trips for K-12 students. Grants are awarded for specific projects and require one-to-one matching funds from recipients. Private support alone cannot match the leveraging role of government cultural funding.
• Again I urge you to vote “no” on the Perry amendments and support funding of at least $186.3 million each for NEA and NEH in order to bolster museums’ vital work in our community.

Please also send a message to your Representative urging their support for NEH and NEA in addition to your call. It takes just a few moments using our template.

Currently, the House Interior Appropriations bill contains $186.3 million in FY 2024 funding for each agency which would be a 10% cut to both compared with FY 2023. The Senate bill would fund each agency at $207 million, which is the same as current year FY 2023 funding. The House and Senate will eventually negotiate the difference.

Thank you for your advocacy for museums!

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Your steadfast advocacy efforts make a critical difference in building needed support for museums and museum professionals.

Looking for more advocacy tools and resources? Visit the Advocacy section of our newly-updated Resource Library today!

Visit http://www.aam-us.org/advocacy to learn more about AAM’s advocacy for museums.