Dear Chairman Moran and Ranking Member Simpson: We are writing to urge the subcommittee to provide $232.5 million to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, with $144 million for NEH National Programs and $60 million for the NEH federal/State Partnership. This $65 million increase over the FY 2010 enacted level would help offset mounting economic pressure on the academic workforce and humanities institutions, as well as strengthen the nation's infrastructure for humanities education and research for the long-run.

Dear Chairman Moran and Ranking Member Simpson: On behalf of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization of 60 leading U.S. public and private research universities, I appreciate the opportunity to testify before you today on the FY2010 budget of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The Endowment is the single most important source of federal support for humanities research and humanities public education. We believe that the nation would benefit from a significant funding increase for the NEH, in part as a complement to the federal investment in science and engineering research. It is through the humanities that we can better understand and address the social, economic, and political changes associated with technological development and globalization. We also believe that as teachers and supporters of the humanities, we have an obligation and an opportunity to support through history, literature, and language a culture of tolerance and civility, which is greatly needed today. NEH strengthens and benefits the nation by promoting excellence in the humanities and conveying the lessons of history to all Americans.

NEH national programs represent the pool of funds that support peer-reviewed, competitive grant opportunities for a wide range of educational institutions, non-profit
organizations, and individual scholars around the country. They encompass NEH core programs, divisions, and special initiatives: Research, Education, Preservation & Access, Challenge Grants, Public Programs, the Office of Digital Humanities, We the People, and Bridging Cultures. NEH has the immediate capacity to distribute increased funds nationwide through existing program structures, as evidenced by current application and award rates, as well as demonstrated success at significantly higher historical funding levels. Current funding for NEH national programs is $99.6 million, just over half of its FY 1994 value, equivalent in today’s dollars to about $185.7 million when adjusted for inflation.

The President’s proposed FY11 budget would cut the Endowment’s resources at a time when the agency is operating at only about one-third of its demonstrated capacity of $415 million in inflation-adjusted dollars. Specifically, the budget would cut national program funds by $7.2 million (5.6 percent) from $140 million in FY10 to $132.8 million in FY11. The relatively small amount of money saved by the proposed budget would contribute little to overall budget savings but would have a significant impact on the Endowment’s ability to support humanities research and education.