The U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment granting the
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) a ten million dollar budget increase
for 2003 (NEA Newsroom 2003a). The funding hike is earmarked for the
agency's Challenge America initiative, which is designed to make the arts
more widely available in underserved communities across the country.
National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia states:
We welcome this much-needed, positive development. This vote of
confidence in the NEA comes just as state, local, and organizational
arts budgets across the country are being slashed. These funds will
greatly enhance our ability to deliver the finest arts and arts
education programs to all regions of the country. All Americans
should be encouraged that the House recognized this as a worthy
investment that will pay significant cultural and even economic
dividends to communities across the country.
(NEA Newsroom 2003a)
The U.S. Senate is expected to take up its version of the funding
The bipartisan amendment provides an increase of ten million dollars for
the Arts Endowment, in addition to President George W. Bush's FY 2004
budget request of $117.480 million. The agency's FY 2003 funding is
$115.731 million. The Slaughter-Shays-Dicks-Leach amendment was sponsored
by Representatives Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Chris Shays (R-CT), co-
chairs of the Congressional Arts Caucus, and Norm Dicks (D-WA), Ranking
Minority Member on the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee and Jim Leach
Members of the House-Senate conference committee who've been
negotiating the 2004 Interior Appropriations bill now agree to increase the
budget of the National Endowment for the Arts by nearly seven million
dollars. This raises the budget for the nation's leading annual fund...