| House Senate Committees Say
"Yes" to Arts, "No" to Parks By Tom
McClimon Both the House and Senate Interior Appropriations Committees included funding for the arts and humanities in their FY 2000 budgets, but, as expected, both Committees did not include any funding for an urban parks program. Meeting at the end of June, the Senate Interior Appropriations Committee allocated an additional $1 million each to both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. This would mean a budget of $99 million for the National Endowment for the Arts and $111 for the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Senate Committee also approved an additional increase of $500,000 for the Office of Museum Services. On the House side, the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee recommended level funding for both the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities. The NEA’s budget would be set at $98 million and the NEH’s at $110 million. The House Subcommittee did recommend a $995,000 increase in the budget of the Office of Museum Services. Both budget recommendations will now go to a House/Senate Conference Committee for final resolution with changes also possible on both the House and Senate floors. As expected, neither the House nor the Senate Committees recommended any funding for the stateside program of the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) or the Urban Parks Recreation and Recovery Program (UPARR). Greater action will take place later this summer when both the House and Senate Natural Resources Committees will mark-up legislation on land conservation legislation, both of which contains major funding for urban parks.
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