The Daily Swarm

Daily Swarm reader Bill Bragin passes along this bit of disconcerting news that seems to have been all but lost lost in the fog of partisan war over the economic stimulus package. Last Friday, a Senate amendment to the recovery bill passed by a wide majority that specifically targets non-profit arts groups for exclusion from any recovery funds (via L.A Times):

Maybe the arts just aren’t that stimulating. At least that seems to be the sense of the U.S. Senate—including California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, who joined a wide majority Friday in passing an amendment “to ensure that taxpayer money is not lost on wasteful and non-stimulative projects” such as funding museums, theaters and art centers.

Americans for the Arts, which has been fighting for a crumb or two of the federal economic stimulus package to land on the table of nonprofit arts organizations, reported that its side took a drubbing to the tune of 73 votes to 24. The arts advocacy and lobbying organization labeled the amendment to the Senate’s $827-billion stimulus proposal “egregious” in its exclusion of “any… museum, theater [or] art center” from sharing in the bailout. At least the arts are in popular company: Also excluded are any “gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, community park… and highway beautification project.”

Americans for the Arts notes that among those voting for Muskogee, Okla., Republican Tom Coburn’s amendment to freeze out the arts were, “surprisingly,” Feinstein, Charles Schumer of New York, Robert Casey of Pennsylvania and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. California’s other senator, Barbara Boxer, voted against the amendment.

Yesterday, the Senate passed the bill with the arts-screwing amendment intact (via Americans for the Arts):

The Senate passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act with a vote of 61 to 37 today. As the bill heads to Congressional conference, $50 million in recovery funds to be distributed by the National Endowment for the Arts hang in the balance. Americans for the Arts President and CEO Robert Lynch said:

“The United States Senate missed an opportunity today to provide much needed stimulus support to the nation’s creative workforce. By not including $50 million in recovery funds to assist nonprofit arts organizations from closing or laying-off more workers, the Senate has failed to respond to the very real economic crisis facing the nonprofit arts industry…. As the bill heads to conference, Congressional leaders and the White House need to recognize that the arts are a legitimate U.S. economic industry and must keep the arts recovery funds in the final version of the legislation. These funds will allow arts organizations – large and small – to play a vital role in reviving their local economy.”

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