In an amazing development, the U.S. House full appropriations committee
this morning over-ruled the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which
on Tuesday had recommended zero funding for the National Endowment for
the Arts.  The full committee today approved an amendment to continue
funding the agency at this year's level of $98.5 million.  Five
Republicans deserted the GOP leadership position to support the agency,
including Jim Kolbe (AZ), Jim Walsh (NY), Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ),
John Porter (IL), and Michael Forbes (NY).

These five members should be congratulated on their votes, all the more
so because the committee is still working as I'm writing, and there's
always a possibility that they could re-open the issue.  Go to the House
web site (www.house.gov) for contact information.

In other NEA news, the US Supreme Court today released its decision in
Finley v. NEA.  You may remember that this case hinged on whether the
NEA must take general standards of decency into account when making
grants.  Lower courts had found that this was too vague to be
constitutional, but the Supreme Court has now overturned the lower court
decisions, by a vote of 8 to 1.

Andy Finch
AAM Government Affairs
[log in to unmask]