How to Contact Congressional Appropriations Committees in Support of Arts & Culture Funding

This bulletin from GIA’s Washington, D.C. policy firm, Penn Hill Group, provides recommendations for arts funders to conduct outreach to their members of Congress on funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), and Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). As each of these agencies have different strengths among both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, this memorandum provides both overall outreach and agency specific recommendations.

General Support

All members of Congress — House, Senate, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents — will eventually be faced with a vote on whether to fund the NEA, NEH, CPB and IMLS. While any member of the public can reach out to any Congressional office to share their view, offices are likely to give greater weight to constituents from the districts they represent. Please contact elected leaders from your personal district of residence as well as the district of your organization (if you are permitted to identify with the organization for advocacy purposes). Click here to find your representatives and senators.

Specific Targets for Outreach to Appropriations Subcommittees

These committee members are vital to the 2018 budgets for our cultural agencies.  If you have a connection or are represented by them, it is important to call them today and ask them to support the cultural agencies overseen by their committee. Please call committee members by dialing the Capitol Hill switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

If you cannot or do not feel comfortable calling, you can also go to a Congress member’s website and click “Contact” to send an email to the office from within the website. To locate a member’s website, please use the above links.

Funding for the NEA and NEH is overseen by the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Subcommittees. Funding for the CPB and IMLS are overseen by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies. These subcommittees are directly responsible for setting funding levels in bills that initiate the appropriations process for these agencies each year.

Based on this information, GIA and Penn Hill recommend immediate outreach to the following members of Congress on funding for these agencies:

House Appropriations Subcommittees

Interior Subcommittee (oversees funding for NEA, NEH)

LHHS Subcommittee (oversees funding for CPB, IMLS)

Senate Appropriations Subcommittees

Interior Subcommittee (oversees funding for NEA, NEH)

LHHS Subcommittee (oversees funding for CPB, IMLS)

Additional Outreach Priorities

After subcommittees propose initial funding levels, members of the full Appropriations Committees in the House and Senate can also have an impact and should be the secondary priority for outreach.

A full list of the House Appropriations Members can be found here.
A full list of the Senate Appropriations Members can be found here.

Third, some members of the House and Senate have shown leadership in advancing arts and cultural related causes. Examples of this include the STEAM Caucus, the Arts Caucus and the  Public Broadcasting Caucus. These members, who may not be on the Appropriations Committees, are vocal leaders on these issues and don’t need to be pressed to support funding, but rather to continue to press the issue of funding for these agencies with their colleagues. These members should be your third priority for outreach.

Lastly, as stated above, all members of the House and Senate will eventually vote on funding levels for these agencies. Rank and file members who are not on the Appropriations Committees should be your fourth priority for outreach.