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After three extended Continuing Resolutions (CRs) to keep the federal government from closing, the House and Senate are finally on track to complete the first six of the FY’24 Appropriations bills by March 8th. This includes funding for the Departments of Agriculture; Transportation-Housing and Urban Development; Energy & Water; Commerce-Justice, Veterans Affairs Administration; and Interior, which includes funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
Text of the 6-bill minibus can be found at: bit.ly/Minibus2024
Here are highlights of the key arts funding in the first six conference bills that are likely to pass this week.
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NEA-NEH funding Thanks to strong advocacy efforts last year, the final conferenced funding level for the NEA and NEH is $207 million each. Shout out to House Interior Chairman Mike Simpson (R-ID) as the House accepted the higher level set by the Senate, led by Senate Interior Chairman Jeff Merkley(D-OR). After defeating two House floor amendments in November that would have eliminated all funding for both the NEA and NEH, the House had passed its Interior Appropriations bill with $186.3 million for each agency; while the Senate had passed its version with $207 million for both agencies, which is level funding from previous year bit.ly/Nov-2-2023.
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Creative Arts Therapies and Community Arts Engagement at Department Veterans Affairs Administration. bit.ly/FundingInfoVetDef. The conferenced FY’24 bill includes $5 million for Creative Arts Therapies and another $5 million in partnerships. Conference report language specifically mentioned, “The Committees continue to acknowledge the effective use of creative arts therapies and arts and humanities partnerships in treating veterans with traumatic brain injuries and psychological health conditions and provide up to $5,000,000 to do so.”