Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 18, 1995 TAG: 9507180090
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
By a 227-179 vote, lawmakers refused to further pare the arts agency's budget, leaving intact a spending bill that would slice the endowment's coffers by about 40 percent to $99.5 million next year. House leaders have pledged to try to terminate the endowment entirely by 1998.
The fight came as the House began a week of battle over Republican spending priorities by debating a measure providing $12 billion next year for the Interior Department, cultural and other programs - $1.5 billion less than they received this year. The National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service and energy conservation would be cut; the Bureau of Mines would be eliminated.
In what has become an almost annual attack on the arts agency and the National Endowment for the Humanities, conservatives criticized the use of taxpayers' dollars to finance works they said are objectionable.
This time, their target was Highways Inc., a Santa Monica, Calif., performance center whose summer schedule includes music, dance and comedy by gay and lesbian performers. It received two endowment grants this year totaling $15,000.
According to the center's brochure, comedienne Marga Gomez called her show ``Not for Republicans'' and promised the performer would ``hold forth on her favorite subjects: pain, regret, self pity, doom and sex with Newt Gingrich's mother.''
Labeling the performances ``lurid junk,'' Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., sponsored the amendment to slash the extra $10 million. ``This is sexually explicit homosexual art material,'' he said. ``... I think my colleagues from Los Angeles should be offended. I know I am.''
Endowment defenders said the agency would be damaged severely by the $63 million cut the bill already called for. They also said the endowment made thousands of worthy grants and supported art teachers throughout the country.
One defender, Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., made an unusually personal attack against Stearns, whom she noted is a millionaire.
``It is not your children, Mr. Stearns, who are going to be hurt,'' Slaughter said. ``It's going to be the children in every nook and cranny in the United States who will not have any opportunity to develop who they are.''
Lawmakers also expected to debate amendments aimed at killing the arts and humanities endowments this year, though both were expected to lose. The bill would also cut the humanities endowment's budget to $99.5 million.
Because of its cuts, the Interior bill drew a veto threat from the White House last week - the latest in series of clashes between President Clinton and Republicans over spending in the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
Other bills awaiting House action this week also trimmed scores of programs.
Next in line were bills providing $23.2 billion for the Treasury, Postal Service and general government, which would kill the White House's Council of Economic Advisors; a $62.7 billion agriculture measure trimming food stamps; and possibly a $35.4 billion transportation bill shrinking mass transit aid.
Besides its reductions in the cultural endowments, the Interior bill contained less money for dozens of other federal programs than they are receiving this year and than Clinton requested for next year.
The National Biological Service, which monitors endangered species, would see its $162 million budget cut by nearly one-third and be placed under the U.S. Geological Survey, limiting its independence. The president sought $173 million.
by CNB