Chellie Pingree: “To close, I appreciate the words of Mr. Simpson, and I appreciate his acknowledgment that it is the rural communities…”

“To close, I appreciate the words of Mr. Simpson, and I appreciate his acknowledgment that it is the rural communities, whether in his State of Idaho or my State of Maine, where there are so many communities that don't have the benefit of the private funding, they don't have the benefit of wealthy parents who can maybe afford to pay for their children's music and arts education. These are communities that desperately depend on this money. I also want to say that while there is a lot of economic growth going on in the arts industry, that it is a huge contributor, that many of these venues--particularly the small ones--were the first to have to close their doors during the pandemic and the last to open, and many haven't recovered. Many people who work in the arts industry, many artists themselves are still struggling to get back on their feet. That just makes this funding even more critically important. This is a great way to make sure that everyone in America has the great educational benefit that all young people should have in arts and music and developing that level of creativity and curiosity and the so many wonderful educational benefits that we know come from having that education in the arts. This makes sure that it is available to everybody. We are already facing a cut in this bill. We are going from $207 million--which was never enough; it ought to be at least a dollar per person--down to $186 million. This cut has already been taken.…”