1)  By a wide margin -- about 80 votes --  the House defeated the Shadegg
amendment to cut NEH by a further $12 million.  They haven't voted on
final passage of the interior appropriations bill yet, but we anticipate no
more amendments on the cultural agencies.

2)  In response to a question:

Rep. Regula (chair of interior approps subcommittee) told the House that
the committee intends to stand by the leadership agreement reached last
year, which called for eliminating the NEA *after* FY 1997 and NEH after
1998.  In order to actually eliminate the agency(ies), the House would
have to so vote *next* year (regarding NEA) and the following year for
NEH. In other words, it really doesn't matter very much what Mr. Regula
says today, because the crux will be in the next Congress.

Sorry for Beltway talk -- just yell if I am being unintelligible.

Andy Finch
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AAM Government Affairs