By Alexandra Klein
On Friday, the Biden administration released its FY 22 budget request which included increases for many of our priorities. While this is only a request and Congress will ultimately craft spending bills, the increases in the administration’s proposal are thanks to the ongoing efforts of humanities advocates and show that the Biden administration understands the value of these programs.
Under the request, the NEH would receive $177.5 million, a $10 million increase. The Institute of Museum and Library Services would receive $265 million, an increase of $8 million. The National Archives and Records Administration would receive $403 million, an increase of $26 million, and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission would receive $9.5 million, an increase of $3 million.
We were disappointed to see only level funding proposed for the Department of Education’s international education programs Title VI and Fulbright-Hays with $69.4 million and $8.8 million respectively.
For more information, please see our funding chart.
Congress will now begin drafting spending bills, and as it does so, we’ll continue advocating for increased funding across our priorities. We expect to see draft bills from the House towards the end of June and from the Senate later this summer.
One note regarding the funding amounts for the cultural agencies: the request for the NEA is $201 million. This would be a break with the tradition of parity in funding for the endowments. While we are certainly pleased to see this requested increase for the NEA, we will work on Capitol Hill to ensure that NEH also receives $201 million in funding in appropriations bills given the at-least equally strong case for humanities funding at this time.
Posted on June 3, 2021
Photo Credit
Thumbnail image: Photo by Morrison Photography.