Obama's arts budget plan goes beyond restoring sequester cuts
Submitted by Steve on April 16, 2013
From Mike Boehm at The Los Angeles Times:
President Obama’s budget proposal for the coming fiscal year would boost federal arts spending 10% above where it stands at the moment, lifting it to $1.58 billion for the 2013-14 budget year that begins Oct. 1 and more than compensating for cuts from the “budget sequestration” bill that went into effect last month. Those reductions sliced 5% across the board from three federal cultural grant-making agencies as well as the Smithsonian Institution, the National Gallery of Art and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, lowering their combined spending from $1.51 billion to about $1.44 billion for fiscal 2012-13.
The budget proposal Obama presented last week for 2013-14 would restore those cuts and provide an additional 4.5% increase above pre-sequestration funding.
The president is recommending $154.5 million each for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, 5.8% higher than their $146 million allowance before sequestration, in which they each took a $7.3 million hit.