While fiscal year (FY) 2020 began on Oct. 1, the U.S. Congress must still pass the 12 appropriation bills to fund the government through Sept. 30, 2020 (the government is currently operating under a continuing resolution [CR] through Nov. 21). At least one of your U.S. Senators sits on the powerful Appropriations Committee. They need to hear from you now about your support for robust federal arts funding and how it supports your community and state.

Last week, the U.S. Senate passed their version of the Interior Appropriations bill by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 84 – 9, that included $2 million in increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)! You may recall that the U.S. House bill, approved earlier this summer, provided a $12.5 million increase in funding to those agencies.

These positive results are the outcomes of grassroots advocacy—from Hill visits during the National Arts Action Summit, to the emails (like this one) advocates have been sending to their congressional delegation throughout the year.

As negotiations are ongoing to finish up FY 2020 funding, it is vital to call on U.S. Senate appropriators to include these remaining pro-arts funding levels in the final legislation.

This includes:

Bipartisan Senate passage of FY 2020 spending package that included the Interior Appropriations bill.

• Education bill—includes arts education grant funds and a provision calling for maintaining a federal “report card” in arts education
• Defense Department bill—includes language supporting creative arts therapies for service members
• Veterans Department bill—includes language supporting creative arts therapies and $5 million for veterans
• Justice Department bill—includes a provision supporting inclusion of arts-specific intervention strategies for juvenile justice programs

Please take two minutes to send your message to your U.S. Senators. Thank you for taking action to support these end-of-year funding priorities.