Congress Votes $12.5 Million NEA Increase

In back-to-back votes on October 29, both the House and the Senate passed the final version of the bill appropriating $167.5 million for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in fiscal year 2010. The funding legislation agreed to by a House-Senate conference committee earlier in the week set the arts endowment budget for the year with an increase of $12.5 million above the 2009 level of $155 million. President Obama had proposed raising the arts funding to $161.3 million, the same amount set in the Senate version of the legislation. The House had allocated $170 million for the arts endowment in the coming year.