
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 23, 1993                   TAG: 9309230044
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ALEXANDER WINS PRAISE OF PANEL

Actress Jane Alexander, President Clinton's nominee to run the embattled National Endowment for the Arts, received the lavish praise of virtually every member of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee on Wednesday.

The vote to confirm her was 17-0. The full Senate is expected to vote next month.

In what some senators described as less a confirmation hearing than a "beatification" or a "coronation," members of both parties said they thought the prestige and leadership expected from the stage and screen star would restore public and congressional confidence in the controversial arts funding agency and rescue it from the ideological warfare long waged over its grant decisions.

Because of continuing rancor over past agency funding of explicit homoerotic photographs, defamatory artistic depictions of Jesus and other unpopular arts projects, members of Congress have repeatedly tried to abolish the NEA, or at least cut its funding.

Wednesday's show of strong bipartisan support for Alexander, including that of conservative Republican Sens. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Orrin Hatch of Utah, prompted expectations of nearly unanimous approval when the full Senate votes.

- Chicago Tribune

by CNB