Update to this article, 1/9/2026: Oregon Arts Watch published a follow-up article after interviewing Amy Lewin, director of the Oregon Arts Commission and Oregon Cultural Trust, and Ben Waterhouse, communications director of Oregon Humanities. Lewin said, “Overall, it’s reassuring. This would allow us to continue our plan of steady support for hundreds of arts organizations across Oregon, providing essential operational and project funding that fuels jobs and creativity in every corner of our state.”
“The ominibus passed by the House is provisional good news,” Waterhouse told Oregon ArtsWatch. “We are pleased to see steady funding for NEA and NEH, given the overall decrease in the federal budget. We will hold off on celebrations until the bill is passed by the Senate and signed by the President and we see a notice of action from NEH regarding funding for state councils.”
Dear Friends,
As Congress continues negotiations on the Fiscal Year 2026 federal budget, we want to share an important, if mixed, update on proposed funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). (Read the full summary)
The short version:
Funding is flat and flat is not enough, but it is better than the alternative we narrowly avoided.
Where FY26 funding currently stands
Under the House Republican FY26 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations minibus, the NEA and NEH are each proposed to receive $207 million.
These figures match FY25, FY24, and FY24 funding levels.
Why this is not good news, but still matters
Let’s be clear: level funding is effectively a cut.
After years of rising costs, inflation, increased demand, and expanding responsibilities placed on cultural organizations, flat funding means less real-world capacity for arts and humanities work across the country. Grant dollars do not go as far as they did even two years ago, and organizations are being asked to do more with less.
That said, this proposal represents a silver lining in an otherwise hostile federal budget environment.
Earlier House committee proposals for FY26 would have cut NEA and NEH funding to $135 million each, a reduction of roughly 35%. Had those cuts moved forward, the impact would have been immediate and severe: fewer grants, smaller awards, reduced geographic reach, and long-term damage to cultural infrastructure, especially in rural and underserved communities.
Avoiding those cuts matters.
Recent years for context:
• FY21: $167.5M
• FY22: $180M
• FY23–FY25: $207M
We reached $207M through sustained advocacy and bipartisan recognition of the value arts and humanities bring to education, economic development, and civic life. Freezing funding at that level, however, risks undoing that progress over time.
What comes next
This proposal is not final. Negotiations between the House and Senate will continue, and the outcome will determine whether NEA and NEH funding merely treads water or begins to reflect the true cost and value of the work these agencies support.
Holding the line is not the goal. It is the least we can do.
We must continue pushing for funding levels that recognize inflation, demand, and the outsized return on investment that arts and humanities programs deliver in every state.
We will continue to organize and advocate on state and federal levels, but we will need your help. Please let us know if you would like to learn more about how we can advocate to our state and federal officials.
Thank you for staying engaged and for continuing to make the case that culture is not just optional infrastructure.
-CACO Board