Norman D. Dicks: “this amendment is completely offset by a very small cut in administrative expenses. Because of the offset, the money is…”

“this amendment is completely offset by a very small cut in administrative expenses. Because of the offset, the money is not going to be taken from here and moved over to some worthy cause. This is a worthy cause because we have created this enormous industry in this country that have jobs, economic activity surrounding the arts. We started this endowment back in 1964. My good friend, Livingston Biddle, was the staff person who worked with Senator Pell to get this thing created. Ever since then, we have seen the growth of the arts throughout the country because of the seed money that comes from the endowment. Even with this 10 percent increase, we are still 30 percent below where we were in 1994. If we had inflation, it would be 50 percent below. We are just trying to get back to a reasonable level of funding, and this House supported this amendment last year. I urge a vote for it this year.”