Dear Colleagues at CMU:
I urge you to contact your congressperson in an effort to help increase funding for the NEA. (More info below.) The Americans for the Arts site makes it quite easy for you to do so.
will get you to the page where they have a letter already drafted. It literally took me only one minute.
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A "Dear Colleague" letter is being circulated on Capitol Hill this week by the co-chairs of the Congressional Arts Caucus, Representatives Chris Shays (R-CT) and Louise Slaughter (D-NY), to increase the funding level of the National Endowment for the Arts to $170 million in FY 2007. Representatives Shays and Slaughter are seeking additional signatories to this letter, and we ask for your assistance in gathering them. In just two minutes, you can use our E-Advocacy Center to contact your Member of Congress and ask them to sign on to the Dear Colleague letter. The deadline for your Representative to add their signature is Friday, March 31, so there is no time to lose!
The President’s FY 2007 budget requests no new funding for the NEA, but rather a "level-funding" of $124.41 million, identical to last year's total. In addition, the budget request reallocates funds at the expense of some valuable programs, such as Challenge America. This important program ensures that direct grants from the NEA reach underserved populations, including places where opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics or disability.
The letter currently being circulated by the Congressional Arts Caucus would urge the leaders of the House Interior Appropriations committee - which has jurisdiction over NEA funding - to increase NEA funding to $170 million in FY 2007, an increase of $45 million over current funding. As the Dear Colleague letter notes, "The American public wants and needs an affordable investment in the arts. An investment in the arts is an investment in our future."
An increase in funding for the NEA was one of several issues our arts advocates discussed with their Members of Congress during our 19th annual Arts Advocacy Day, held on Capitol Hill on March 15. Thanks so much to those of you who came to Washington, DC or participated online to make this event such a success. While Arts Advocacy Day may be over, our work to increase arts funding has just begun. Please urge your Representative to sign the Dear Colleague letter and signal their support of the arts.
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