Louise Slaughter: “Mr. Chairman, this is our annual rite of passage on the Interior bill. I remember that one of my colleagues recently…”

“Mr. Chairman, this is our annual rite of passage on the Interior bill. I remember that one of my colleagues recently said in the last debate that it just is not right to come down here and lie. Well, we are accustomed to that. It seems that every year something comes up that people view with great alarm by the National Endowment for the Arts. This year is a very interesting one. This one comes from Eagle Forum and they say something like 167, I believe, which is an odd number, but 167 naked go-go dancers put on a performance sponsored by the NEA. Not so, Mr. Chairman. The group called Broadway Cares, which was in Equity, fights AIDS, was given a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for a single performance to be held in September of this year. It has not been held. They are master classes conducted by some of the most prestigious companies in modern dance, including the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and the Tricia Brown Company. The festival will include performances by notable dancers including current and former dancers of the New York City Ballet, Ballet Hispanico, Sean Curr and Company, Alpha Omega, and that is the only project of Broadway Cares sponsored by the NEA. So that one bites the dust.”