Francisco Canseco: “My amendment is very simple. It would eliminate Federal funding for the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs grant…”

“My amendment is very simple. It would eliminate Federal funding for the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs grant program which the underlying continuing resolution funds at $4.5 million. This program provides noncompetitive grant funding for overhead costs to support artistic and cultural programs in the District of Columbia exclusively. In his budget last year and this year, President Obama has requested that this program's funding be cut by 50 percent, which the underlying legislation does. In this year's budget, President Obama notes that ``in general, these institutions are also able to apply for Federal funding from other resources.'' I'm not here to debate the merits of the program. I'm not here to question whether or not the money has been used by the institutions to accomplish good things. What I'm here to do today is to debate and question why this program should be considered a priority and receive taxpayer funding when we're in a fiscal crisis.”