Here is the National Humanities Alliance:
Later today, the House of Representatives will consider an amendment to the FY 2024 Interior Appropriations bill that would eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).Â
This amendment was proposed by Representative Scott Perry (R-PA-10) and ruled in order just last night. We need to act fast to oppose this amendment before it comes to the floor.Â
It is crucial that your Members of Congress hear from you TODAY to ensure that Congress rejects this proposal. Let your Members of Congress know that you support the NEH!
The National Humanities Alliance has prepared an e-mail you can send to your representative:
As a constituent, I am writing to urge you to vote against Representative Perry’s proposed amendment (#250) to the FY 2024 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (H.R. 4821) that would eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The NEH was established in 1965 in recognition of the unique role the humanities play in helping U.S. citizens develop the wisdom, vision, and knowledge required to participate in a thriving democracy. Today, the NEH continues to support the work of humanities councils, museums, libraries, and universities to preserve and explore local history and traditions; promote understanding among diverse communities; and foster a sense of our common ideals, enduring civic values, and shared cultural heritage.
NEH-funded summer institutes and seminars for K-12 educators provide teachers with a deeper understanding of history and culture, while helping them develop new teaching methods. In the past five years alone, these programs have reached more than 11,000 teachers, ultimately enriching the classroom experience for an estimated 2 million students.
The NEH continues its crucial work to support veterans through reading groups that help them process their experiences in discussions of literature on experiences of war and homecoming, writing programs for veterans suffering from PTSD, intensive college-preparation programs, and training for Veterans Affairs staff to help them understand the experiences of veterans. The NEH also plays an essential role in saving cultural heritage from natural disasters through trainings for staff at cultural institutions and emergency grants when disaster hits.
While I appreciate the difficult budgetary decisions ahead, I strongly believe that the NEH must be a high priority.
You can send this e-mail here.
There is a time and a place to discuss the NEH’s funding priorities. I have applied for multiple NEH grants over the last twenty years and I have never won one. I am sure there are a lot of reasons for this. Some critics think the academic humanities are out of touch with the American people. They may be right.
But removing federal funding for the humanities is not the answer to legitimate concerns about the humanities in American life. Write your representative today. Scott Perry is not just going after the National Endowment for the Humanities, he is going after all people, like me and others, who want to do work about what it means, and has meant, to be human in this world.
And yes, I have sent an e-mail to Perry’s office that is much more specific than the one above.
Read the amendment here. Scroll down to #250.
Thanks for posting this, John. He is my congressman too, and I will be sending an email. Quick thought on your comment “Some critics think the academic humanities are out of touch with the American people. They may be right.” I agree, and find this especially and ironically true in my own field of American Studies. Check out the lists of papers presented at recent ASA meetings. As a colleague at PSU writes, it has become “a regular source for ‘What wacky stuff are they up to on campus?’ articles and blogs.”
Thanks for this, Earl.