policy and advocacy
Legislative Update
Follow the links below for the latest updates on federal action pertaining to the arts. You may write your members of Congress on any of these issues by visiting our E-Advocacy Center.Further details on our policy positions are provided through our issue briefs.
Federal Tax Policy | Cultural Exchange | Artist Visa Immigration
Senate Floor Information (see right side of the page for today's schedule)
2009 Congressional Schedule (dates subject to change)
Congressional Arts Caucus Roster
The Obama Administration and the 111th Session of Congress addressed several arts-related spending issues in their first few months of 2009. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) passed on February 13, 2009, $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) was included to throw a lifeline to the struggling creative workforce. As the legislation states, appropriations for the NEA will "fund arts projects and activities which preserve jobs in the nonprofit arts sector threatened by declines in philanthropic and other support during the current economic downturn." You can read House Appropriations Chairman David Obey's (D-WI) floor statement on the important role of the creative workforce in the economy here. During Senate floor consideration, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) had inserted language restricting funds for “museums, theaters, and art centers.” While initially passing the Senate, the so-called “Coburn Amendment” was stripped from the final legislation. President Obama signed the bill the following week.
FY2009 Omnibus Appropriations
After nearly 6 months of operating under FY 2008 funding levels because of a stalled legislative budget process that left most cultural appropriations at the same funding level from the previous year, Congress passed and President Obama signed the FY 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act on March 11, 2009, providing an increase of $10 million ($144.7 to $155 million) to the budgets of both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Arts in Education (AIE) program at the U.S. Department of Education was increased from $37.5 million to $38.1 million and the Office of Museum Services went from $31.27 million to $35 million. Once again, House and Appropriations Chairman Dave Obey (D-WI) and House Interior Subcommittee Chairman Norm Dicks (D-WA) have overseen significant increases to cultural funding for the third consecutive year.
With the House passage of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, H.R. 1424, on October 3, 2008, the IRA Charitable Rollover provision receives at 2-year extension through December 31, 2009 as part of an extenders package attached to the financial markets bailout legislation. President Bush signed the bill the same day. On December 31, 2007, the IRA Charitable Rollover had expired along with other tax extensions that failed to be considered before the end of that year. The provision, which permits tax-free charitable contributions from an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) of up to $100,000 per year for taxpayers 70.5 years old and older, was included as part of a tax extension package H.R. 1424. The legislation that would make the rollover permanent and remove the arbitrary deduction value and lower the age eligibility cap has been reintroduced in both the Senate and the House as the Public Good IRA Rollover Acts of 2009. The House version is cosponsored by Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) and Rep. Wally Herger (D-CA) as H.R. 1250 and in the Senate as S.864, by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME).
As the 110th Congress ended, the Artist-Museum Partnership Act had gained 111 sponsors in the House bill and 30 to the Senate, the most ever for the legislation. Though the opportunity to pass it in the 110th Congress is gone, it demonstrated that the bill has broad bi-partisan support. Recently, the bill has been reintroduced by Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA) in the House as H.R. 1126 and in the Senate by Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT) as S. 406. Please take a moment to read the former NEA Chairman’s letter stating the importance of this legislation to the nonprofit arts community here. The new legislation is identical to last year’s version and would allow creators of original works to deduct the fair-market value of self-created works given to and retained by a nonprofit institution. It would encourage gifts of visual art such as paintings and sculptures, as well as original manuscripts and supporting material created by composers, authors, and choreographers.
The small Cultural Exchange program at the U.S. State Department received funding through the FY 2009 omnibus budget bill. However, because of its size, the exact budget level does not appear in the department budget although it is estimated to be approximately $11 million.
Artist Visa Immigration Update
H.R. 1312, The Arts Require Timely Service Act (ARTS), a bill requiring the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to expedite nonprofit arts-related organizations visa petitions, passed the House of Representatives bill on April 1, 2008 under suspension of the rules by voice vote. The Senate did not consider the legislation before the end of the 110th Congress, and it was not passed. The legislation was reintroduced in the 111th Session of Congress as H.R. 1750 in the House of Representatives with the chief sponsor remaining as Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA). The bill is identical to the one that passed the House in the 110th Session of Congress.
