House Panel Would Cut $20 Million from NEH Budget

A House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee on Thursday backed legislation that would provide $20 million less to the National Endowment for the Humanities in the 2012 fiscal year than the agency is receiving this year. The measure would allocate $135 million to the NEH, which would represent a reduction of 13 percent -- nearly double what the House panel proposed to cut from the Interior Department and other agencies covered the spending legislation. In an e-mail alert Thursday urging advocates for the humanities to oppose the measure, the National Humanities Alliance said that "these disproportionate cuts would compromise the agency’s ability to fulfill its mission." The National Endowment for the Arts would also receive $135 million under the subcommittee's bill, which the full Appropriations Committee is expected to take up next Tuesday.