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]