John Conyers: “I believe those who pursued a strategy of defunding and dismantling the NEA in the 104th Congress made a mistake. I…”

“I believe those who pursued a strategy of defunding and dismantling the NEA in the 104th Congress made a mistake. I believe those who seized upon a few questionable grants to attempt to undo what has been achieved in 31 years, with consistent bipartisan support, were misguided. I hope that this Congress will reverse that course and support the President's proposal to strengthen the NEA. I believe efforts to defund the NEA in the 104th were bad public policy. It was bad public policy because it was indiscriminate in its effort to correct a perceived wrong. If indeed the peer panel review system, in a few instances, made decisions of questionable taste with regard to what the American people would want to support with public funds, that was not a sufficient reason to reduce the NEA's appropriation by nearly 40 percent. When we reflect on what the arts mean to this society, I think we will all see that supporting the NEA is something on which we should all agree.”