President Trump already had eliminated most grants by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities this term, after trying to shut them down in his first term. He returned to that goal in the budget proposal for the next fiscal year released Friday, the New York Times reports. The two agencies are mentioned in the plan, under "small agency eliminations." Hours later, the NEA began to cancel grants to arts organizations around the country, per the Times. The notices were sent from an email address that doesn't accept replies.
The actions are "a systematic effort to undermine the nation's cultural fabric," said Erin Harkey of Americans for the Arts, which advocates for federal funding, per Yahoo News. The budget proposal says the eliminations are "consistent with the president's efforts to decrease the size of the federal government to enhance accountability, reduce waste, and reduce unnecessary governmental entities." The administration had already laid off much of the agencies' staffs and canceled grants, though the NEA had not announced any major cuts yet.
More than a dozen arts nonprofits in the San Francisco area alone were told by email Friday afternoon that their grants had been eliminated, per KQED. Rep. Chellie Pingree, the top Democrat on the House panel that oversees the NEA, told the Times that the president is "making a broad-based attack on the arts, both for funding and content"—noting his takeover of the Kennedy Center and attempts to make changes at the Smithsonian Institution. (More President Trump stories.)
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