Sam Farr: “today we debate the level of our federal commitment to arts and humanities programs. We have an opportunity to ensure…”

“today we debate the level of our federal commitment to arts and humanities programs. We have an opportunity to ensure that the children who today dip their hands in pots of fingerprints and sit listening to storybooks will grow up to be active members of a creative nation, rich and beauty and ideas. We all deserve arts and humanities. All children and adults deserve the opportunity to learn to create, to express their ideas and their visions. They deserve the opportunity to learn history, languages, philosophy, painting, sculpture, music, and dance. We all need arts and humanities. Arts and humanities do more than just offer us entertainment and distraction from turmoil in our lives, they provide insight and perspective, they offer comfort and hope. Arts and humanities give us ways to understand and find meaning in what is happening in our nation, and what has happened centuries ago. They give us ways to share that meaning with our children. Last September, we witnessed some use their ability to destroy against our nation. We have endeavored to find ways to honor those who lost their lives in the destruction. I think one way to do so today is to support our nation's ability to create. I proudly support the Slaughter-Dicks-Horn-Johnson-Morella amendment to increase funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and I ask my colleagues to do same.”