[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 64 (Thursday, April 6, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H4359-H4360]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS FOR FISCAL YEAR 
         1993--MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore laid before the House the following message 
from the President of the United States; which was read and, together 
with the accompanying papers, without objection, referred to the 
Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities:

To the Congress of the United States:
  It is my special pleasure to transmit herewith the Annual Report of 
the National Endowment for the Arts for the fiscal year 1993.
  The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded over 100,000 grants 
since 1965 for arts projects that touch every community in the Nation. 
Through its grants to individual artists, the agency has helped to 
launch and sustain the voice and grace of a generation--such as the 
brilliance of Rita Dove, now the U.S. Poet Laureate, or the daring of 
dancer Arthur Mitchell. Through its grants to art organizations, it has 
helped invigorate community arts centers and museums, preserve our folk 
heritage, and advance the performing, literary, and visual arts.
  Since its inception, the Arts endowment has believed that all 
children should have an education in the arts. Over the past few years, 
the agency has worked hard to include the arts in our national 
education reform movement. Today, the arts are helping to lead the way 
in renewing American schools.
  I have seen first-hand the success story of this small agency. In my 
home State of Arkansas, the National Endowment for the Arts worked in 
partnership with the State arts agency and the private sector to bring 
artists into our schools, to help cities revive downtown centers, and 
to support opera and jazz, literature and music. All across 
[[Page H4360]] the United States, the Endowment invests in our cultural 
institutions and artists. People in communities small and large in 
every State have greater opportunities to participate and enjoy the 
arts. We all benefit from this increased arts presence, and yet the 
cost is just 65 cents per American. The payback in economic terms has 
always been several-fold. The payback in human benefit is incalculable.
                                                  William J. Clinton.  
  The White House, April 6, 1995.
  

                          ____________________