National Endowment for the Arts Budget Set to Increase...

Looks like the NEA and NEH are safe for now, pending House and Senate approval of the bipartisan spending bill meant to avoid any government shutdown. In congressional leaders’ agreement Sunday, it was announced that they would not only maintain NEA funding for fiscal year 2017, but increase it by $2 million. More from Jessica Gelt at the LA Times:

In a statement Monday, the NEA struck an optimistic note, pointing out that the proposed appropriation of about $150 million was the level of funding that it requested from Congress in February 2016.

“This morning Congress released the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017, a bipartisan agreement that will fund the government for the remainder of FY 2017,” the NEA wrote in an email to the Los Angeles Times. “In this bill, the NEA is funded at its FY 2017 request level of $149.849 million. … The agency has been operating at its FY 2016 appropriation of $147.949 since October 1, 2016. Congress is expected to pass this bill later in the week, and the President is expected to sign it.”

In fact, as noted at Artforum, Trump is pleased with the agreement:

"We’re very happy with it,” the president told Bloomberg News on Monday. He added that he plans to sign the bill as long as it remains “as we discussed.” While the spending package is a far cry from what Trump had proposed in his federal 2018 budget plan, the bill provides an additional $25 million in funds for the military, $1.5 million for border security, and $120 million for the costs of protecting the president and his family.