It's been a great week on Capitol Hill for the arts!

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed  a bill 277-130 to make permanent a key tax incentive for charitable giving, the IRA Charitable Rollover. Making this provision permanent has been a key legislative goal of Americans for the Arts for the last decade, as the current cycle of expiration and reinstatement has left many donors unable to maximize their support for charitable work. 

Last Tuesday, ArtBar by Catalyst Club in Albuquerque, New Mexico, shocked arts supporters by announcing it was officially closing. ArtBar is a nonprofit club, with 2,000 members, that generates grant funds through the sale of alcohol. Back on June 11, ArtBar received a citation after it sent a press release about an event to a local paper. The event advertisement had information regarding a cover charge, which the regulation and licensing department said violated the conditions of having a club license from New Mexico.

Last Monday, the San Diego City Council approved $100,000 in extra funding to the troubled San Diego Opera. Due to the opera company’s structural instability and its board’s recommendation to shut down for financial reasons, the city council voted to slash city funding from $383,322 to $160,000.  In the aftermath, over half of the San Diego Opera’s board left and its leadership resigned. Since then, under the guidance of a new board and interim executive director, the company is appearing more stable and successfully raised $2 million through a crowdfunding campaign.

On July 11, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed into law the final state budget of $36.5 billion, including the appropriation of $12 million to the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC). Before signing the Massachusetts budget, Governor Patrick announced on July 7 at the Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield that he would allocate $15 million to the state’s Cultural Facilities Fund (CFF).

WASHINGTON – July 11, 2014 – Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education, in partnership with the National Association of Counties (NACo), will present the 2014 Public Leadership in the Arts Award for County Arts Leadership to Clayton County, Ga., on Sunday, July 13, 2014 at the NACo annual conference in New Orleans, La.

Last month, Beaumont, TX students took to the state capitol in Austin to fight for their right to quality arts education.  Throughout June, the Beaumont Independent School District (BISD) in Texas has been under some unique pressure to fix a budget problem. 

Jay Dick, Americans for the Arts' Senior Director of State and Local Government Affairs, was sworn in as a Comissioner for the Virginia Commission on the Arts last month and will serve a 5 year term with them starting July 1, 2014.

Americans for the Arts announced today that ten state teams would join a three-year pilot program to strengthen arts education by advancing state policy. Announced at the National Conference of State Legislatures’ legislative summit in Minneapolis, the ten states entering the pilot program are:

Today, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee advanced legislation (H.R. 4619) to make the IRA Charitable Rollover tax provision permanent in the U.S. tax code, as part of a markup of 5 bills highlighting the U.S. tax code’s impact on charitable giving.

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives Interior Appropriations Subcommittee approved legislation on a voice-vote to fund the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and other cultural institutions like the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Smithsonian Institution. Although the budget situation has improved from last year, the subcommittee has proposed another direct funding cut to the NEA—a decrease of $8 million from the current funding level, to $138 million.

Kerry Washington, actress and arts education advocate, wrote to the Huffington Post on May 20 about the real-life story of Kechelle from Anacostia in Washington, DC and the story of many other students like her whose lives were transformed in Turnaround Arts schools across the country. 

President Obama visited Chicago last week to designate the Pullman neighborhood as a national monument. This designation will help to protect the remains of the Pullman Palace Car Company’s factory in Chicago, and preserve other buildings that were once part of the quintessential planned company town.

Last Friday, June 19, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signed off on capping the state's film tax credit program at $180 million. In the bill, a provision stipulates that film productions will not be able cash in on awarded film credit until the middle of 2016. The law will also place a limit of issuing no more than $30 million per film, which could impact large productions selecting Louisiana to film.

As part of Americans for the Arts' ongoing initative to support our veterans and their families by helping them heal through the arts, we have recently partnered with We Are Veterans, a collaboration of local PBS stations, partner organizations, veteran service organizations, and communities to leverage resources to raise awareness about the well-being of veterans and their families.

Today, the U.S. Senate approved legislation in subcommittee to level-fund the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for the coming fiscal year. It was the first time in nearly six years that the Senate considered the underlying legislation.

Also today, the U.S. House approved its appropriations bill in full committee, also level-funding the agencies.

U.S. House Representatives Aaron Schock (R-IL) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) have introduced legislation that would permanently extend the IRA Charitable Rollover Provision.