Supporting the National Endowment for the Humanities

Dear Friend,

As your Representative, I wanted to let you know that recently I co-signed a letter to the Appropriations Committee in support of the President’s request for $154.3 million in funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for Fiscal Year 2013. The level of funding requested is a slight increase from last year’s funding level.

As you may know, NEH is the primary source of federal support for humanities research and related activities in the U.S. The Endowment provides competitive grant funding for research and scholarship in history, literature, foreign languages, and other fields that provide individuals with critical ethical, cultural, and historical perspective. 

The scope of NEH’s grants is enormous and literally reaches millions of Americans every year. All sectors of our country’s education enterprise – research universities, small private institutions, state colleges, and community colleges – use NEH’s competitive grants to conserve and nurture America’s heritage and educate the next generation of Americans. Additionally, NEH funding allocated through state humanities councils strengthens the cultural infrastructure of local communities in every state and territory across the nation. Furthermore, NEH supports scholarship of the highest level—evidenced by the fact that NEH-supported books have earned 18 Pulitzer Prizes and 20 Bancroft Prizes over the years.

I believe the originating legislation puts it best: “An advanced civilization must not limit its efforts to science and technology alone, but must give full value and support to the other great branches of scholarly and cultural activity in order to achieve a better understanding of the past, a better analysis of the present, and a better view of the future.”-- National Foundation on the Arts & Humanities Act of 1965. As a member of the Congressional Humanities Caucus I am a proud and enthusiastic supporter of the humanities and the NEH.

Thank you again for this opportunity to update you on one portion of my work in Congress. For more information please keep in touch by visiting my website, liking my Facebook page, following me on Twitter, or signing up for my e-newsletter.

Sincerely,

Lois Capps
MEMBER OF CONGRESS