Norman D. Dicks: “I believe that the National Endowment for the Arts deserves the support of the Congress and of the American people. I…”

“I believe that the National Endowment for the Arts deserves the support of the Congress and of the American people. I believe that if we go back to 1964 and we see the Endowment created and we look at the growth in funding from the private sector, it matches the growth of our Federal support for the endowment. I believe that over 100,000 grants have been made and less than 50 have been controversial. When we think of the arts, we think of controversy. I think that is an incredible record. I urge my colleagues today to support the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Moakley] and the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Yates]. Let us defeat this rule. Let us send them back to the Committee on Rules and come out here with an amendment that allows us to vote up or down on the NEA. This block grant thing is nothing but a fraud, in my opinion.”