In late January, Laura Bush went to the National Endowment for the Arts headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue and announced the good news -- the president was requesting $18 million for a new program.
Now it's December, and in the all-but-completed appropriations bill Congress will soon send to the president for his signature, that figure had dwindled to $2 million.
First lady Laura Bush announced plans in January to fund a major new NEA initiative with $18 million. But a congressional bill cuts funding to $2 million.
(J. Scott Applewhite -- The Washington Post)
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"American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius," was meant to be a chance to reacquaint people with the best of American dance, theater, jazz, classical music, literature and other arts, extending the NEA's reach into communities all over the country, giving members of Congress bragging rights about how they were bringing home artistic pork and insulating the agency from political critics. The plan was to include touring and local presentations. Education was a critical focus. Artists were to be assigned to all 50 states. The NEA had announced that the first year would emphasize dance, visual arts and music, with funding going to the Martha Graham Company and the Paul Taylor Company. Now, the NEA is figuring out how to adjust to the new funding realities, for even in an election year, not all high-profile promises survive the appropriations process.
"We are now reworking 'American Masterpieces' with the available funds. We remain committed to rebuilding the endowment as an institution fully capable of meeting the country's enormous needs in access to the arts and arts education," says NEA Chairman Dana Gioia.
Overall, most artistic enterprises dependent on federal dollars have survived the appropriations process, an analysis of the bill shows. The congressional appropriation gives the Smithsonian Institution $615 million for fiscal 2005. Last year it received $596 million.
That new number includes $44 million for the final federal payment on the renovation of the Patent Office Building, the historic downtown site that contains the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It also provides $19.5 million for the National Zoo, including $14 million for the Asia Trail, the most extensive construction at the park in decades. Congress has also given the Smithsonian nearly $4 million to continue planning and hiring staff for the future National Museum of African American History and Culture. The fiscal 2005 spending bill is caught up in a controversy on Capitol Hill about access to citizens' tax returns. That is expected to be resolved next Monday. Then the 3,000-page appropriations bill authorizing $388 billion for most domestic government operations will go to the president for his signature.
In the bill, the NEA is set to receive $121.2 million, compared with $120.97 million in 2004.
The National Endowment for the Humanities is receiving $138 million, compared with $135 million last year.
The Office of Museum Services, part of the federal Institute for Museum and Library Services, is slated for $34.8 million, an increase from $31.4 million in 2004. Its library counterpart is receiving $207 million, up from $198 million last year.
The National Gallery of Art is slated for $103.1 million, up from $98.2 million.
The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts expects to get $33.49 million. Its money is divided between operations, management and capital repairs of the presidential memorial, and theater operations. The $16 million in its repairs budget is for ongoing work, not any new projects, according to the center.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is looking at $41.4 million, an increase from $39.5 million in 2004.
