2008 Spending Bill With Arts Funding Increase

On December 26, President Bush signed into law H.R. 2764, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008. The Fiscal Year 2008 omnibus appropriations bill, combining funds for eleven of the twelve appropriations bills awaiting final action at the end of the year, includes $144.7 million for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) - the highest level of NEA funding since 1995. The $20.2 million increase in support for the NEA represents the largest dollar increase in the arts endowment’s appropriations since 1979.

NASAA and our advocacy colleagues had urged Congress to restore the NEA funding to the peak level of $176 million reached in 1992. In shaping the funding legislation, Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA), chair of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, gave top priority to moving toward that restoration of the federal arts funding lost to the drastic cuts taken by Congress in the mid-1990s. The following table represents the allocation of NEA funding among programs for the 2008 fiscal year.

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