Trump seeks to eliminate Nea

President Trump proposed to eliminate the national endowment for the arts and the national endowment for the human sciences in the budget he published on Friday, again targeting two agencies which he had tried and not to get rid of during his first mandate.

The allocations, as well as the Institute of Museum and Library Services, were among the entities listed in a section entitled “Eliminations of small agencies” in its budgetary plan for the next financial year. The document indicated that the proposal was “in accordance with the president’s efforts to reduce the size of the federal government in order to improve responsibility, reduce waste and reduce unnecessary government entities” and noted that Mr. Trump’s previous budgetary proposals had also “supported these eliminations”.

In 2017, during his first mandate, Trump proposed to eliminate both the arts and endowments in the humanities. But the bipartite support in Congress maintained them alive, and in fact their budgets increased during the first Trump administration.

Since Trump has returned to functions this year, his administration has targeted the national endowment for the humanities and the Museum and Library Services Institute, canceling most of their existing subsidies and linking a large part of their staff. But the Arts Agency had not yet announced major discounts.

The proposal to eliminate endowments has led to a rapid and furious reaction from Democrats. One, Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, promised to fight against the plan to eliminate the “tooth and nails” of the NEA.

Maine’s Pingree Chellie Pingree, which is the main democrat of the subcommittee of the House supervising the NEA, said in an interview that Mr. Trump “made a wide attack on the arts, both for funding and content.” She cited her proposals to eliminate the allocations as well as her takeover of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington and her efforts to influence the Smithsonian Institution.