The National Endowment for the Arts is winning its fight for life, as a House-Senate conference committee agreed Oct. 2 to fund it with a $98 million budget.

However the committee created new guidelines for the organization, it also lowered the funding from its current budget of $99.5 million. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that the NEA will exist for another year.

The new provisions state that the NEA can grant no more than 15 percent of funds to any one state. This will mean millions of dollars in losses for New York, whose current NEA grant percentage ranges in the low 20’s.

The new proposal also raises overall state grants from 35 percent to 40, diminishing the funds generally allocated to federal arts grants.

The committee’s proposal must go through final House/Senate approval. For more information about the NEA’s struggles to survive, and for links to sites related to the NEA, please refer to the Playbill On-Line story, Senate Gives OK To NEA; Now It's Back To The House.

--By Blair Glaser