[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 90 (Tuesday, June 18, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H6484]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                SUPPORT THE ELIMINATION OF NEA'S FUNDING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Jones] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, here we go again. Just as this Congress is 
set to debate the funding of the National Endowment for the Arts, NEA 
Chairwoman, Jane Alexander, has again shown us that both she and the 
taxpayer funded NEA, must go.
  Last Sunday, at the New York Lesbian and Gay Video and Film Festival, 
director Cheryl Dunye premiered her film, ``Watermelon Woman,'' funded 
by the tax dollars of hardworking Americans.
  In the words of the director herself, this pornographic film depicts 
black ``lesbians experiencing their sexual desire for each other.'' 
This film was produced from a $31,000 grant from the NEA.
  I believe that in the opinion of most Americans, Watermelon Woman has 
absolutely no serious artistic, or political value.
  NEA Chairwoman Alexander and the National Endowment for the Arts are 
attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of taxpaying Americans by 
marketing this sexually explicit film as black history.
  As Edmund Peterson, chairman of Project 21 and a leading black 
conservative put it, in Friday's Washington Times, ``There is no demand 
in the black community for this movie; this is a classic example, of 
the Clinton administration, being in bed with the gay-lesbian movement, 
and funding a project through tax dollars, that can't get funded any 
other way.''
  Mr. Speaker, this is not the first time that Miss Alexander and the 
NEA have demonstrated a desire to divert our tax dollars to 
controversial works that demean the religious beliefs and moral values 
of mainstream Americans. One should not forget the March 1994 
performance of Ron Athey, at the Minneapolis Walker Art Center.
  This NEA-funded performance featured Mr. Athey carving a design into 
the back of an assistant, mopping up the blood with paper towels, and 
then sending the paper towels on a line, out over the shocked audience.
  Miss Alexander defended the performance, stating in the Washington 
Post, ``not all art is for everybody.''
  Many in Congress denounced this performance as an obscenity. Miss 
Alexander and the NEA responded by awarding more of our hard-earned tax 
dollars to the Walker Art Center.
  Miss Alexander and the NEA have repeatedly thumbed their noses at 
Congress and the American public.
  I call on President Clinton to find the moral courage within himself 
to protect the children of America from these obscenities, and to 
demand the immediate resignation of Jane Alexander. Mr. President, you 
cannot have it both ways.
  Middle America does not share the NEA's values. The American taxpayer 
and the working families of the Third District of North Carolina do not 
want their money spent on so-called works of art, like a crucifix in 
urine, or photographs, which exploit our children.
  This week, the House is scheduled to debate funding for the National 
Endowment for the Arts.
  It is time the Government got out of the business of funding this so-
called art.
  I urge each of my colleagues to support the elimination of the NEA's 
Federal funding. The taxpayer cannot afford it and our children do not 
deserve it.

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