By Tom McClimon
November 3, 2003

On October 28, House and Senate conferees reached an agreement on an Interior Appropriations bill for fiscal year, 2004, which increased funding for the arts and humanities programs, but gave no funding to the Urban Parks and Recreation Recovery Program (UPARR).

The National Endowment for the Arts is set to receive $122.5 million, an increase of almost $7 million over its current funding. It appears that $5 million of the new funding will be for grants to arts organizations. The National Endowment for the Humanities is set to receive $137 million, an increase of $12 million. $10 million of the increase will be directed towards the "We the People" initiative on American history and civics.

On the parks and recreation side, the news was not as good. The conferees decided not to increase funding for the conservation trust fund, which resulted in no new funding for the UPARR program. The conferees did approve $98 million for the stateside program of the Land and Water Conservation Fund and $75 million for the Historic Preservation Fund.