Lincoln Chafee: “for years during consideration of the Interior appropriations bill, the Senate has debated the fate of the National…”

“for years during consideration of the Interior appropriations bill, the Senate has debated the fate of the National Endowment for the Arts. Those debates have had mixed results. On one hand, NEA funding has been severely reduced. On the other hand, the NEA has made changes in its policies and operation to safeguard against providing Federal dollars to distasteful and, yes, perhaps, inappropriate projects. So, some bad and some good has come from our discussions here. Now, we are in the midst of another such debate. The House voted to eliminate funding for the NEA. It even rejected a proposal to provide $10 million in close down costs. There are Senators who support the House and have offered amendments to eliminate funding for the NEA altogether. Others would eliminate the Endowment by providing all of the appropriated dollars directly to the States in the form of block grants based on State populations. Still others would allow the Endowment to continue but would vastly diminish its role by sending the lion's share of funding to the States as block grants. Earlier this summer, I introduced legislation with Senators Jeffords and Kennedy to reauthorize both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities for 5 years.”