The Trump administration’s proposed 2019 budget includes massive cuts to cultural agencies such as the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Both the NEA and the NEH currently receive about $150 million per year in funding, meaning their budgets are a fraction of a percentage point of the government’s overall spending, ARTnews reports. But under President Donald Trump’s newly released plan, the NEH would get just $42 million and the NEA only $29 million. By way of explanation, the proposal said: “The Budget proposes to begin shutting down NEA in 2019, given the notable funding support provided by private and other public sources and because the Administration does not consider NEA activities to be core Federal responsibilities.” In his 2017 budget proposal, President Trump called for eliminating both agencies entirely. But following an intense backlash from cultural groups and some elected representatives, Congress actually slightly increased the NEA’s funding. Currently, the NEA is still run by Jane Chu, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, but the NEH has been without a Senate-confirmed chairman since William D. Adams left the post in May.