Arts Funding: President Donald Trump Wants To End National Endowment For The Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts, the independent federal agency that promotes and funds art in American communities, will be eliminated if the Trump administration has its way, the Hill reported Thursday.

The NEA provides direct grants to art agencies and artists throughout the country. In 2015, the agency awarded grants in every Congressional district, with roughly half intended to reach underserved populations, the NEA said in its most recent annual report. The agency said it funded 35,000 concerts, readings, performances and art exhibitions that had a live attendance of 33 million in 2015. Last year, the NEA had a budget of nearly $150 million, which is down from a peak of $175 million in 1992.

The elimination of the NEA would be part of a series of much larger cuts to the federal budget that would reduce federal spending by $10.5 trillion over 10 years, the Hill said. The Trump administration would also seek to reduce the size of a variety of agencies, including the departments of Commerce, Energy, Transportation, Justice and State. The administration would also seek to eliminate the National Endowment for the Humanities and privatize the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund PBS and NPR.

In December, Trump staff made overtures to actor Sylvester Stallone to head the NEA. Stallone declined the position, although he said he was flattered to have been considered.

Congress created the NEA in 1965, and in 1966 the agency received about $3 million in funding. That funding increased over the next decade and by 1978, Congress was providing the NEA with more than $120 million dollars a year, which is more than $471 million in today's dollars.

This is not the first time that Republican lawmakers have sought to eliminate the NEA. When Republicans took control of the House in 1995, the first time the GOP controlled the legislative body since the creation of the NEA, Speaker Newt Gingrich talked about eliminating the agency, which had come under fire for funding art that some deemed "offensive." In 2011, a Republican spending plan called for the delaminating the agency.