[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 100 (Thursday, July 15, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1567]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 
                                  2000

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON-LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 14, 1999

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2466) making 
     appropriations for the Department of the Interior and related 
     agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2000, and 
     for other purposes:

  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, today I rise to support 
Representative Slaughter's amendment which will add money to the 
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for 
the Humanities (NEH).
  Ms. Slaughter's amendment raises the appropriation level for the 
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Endowment 
for the Arts (NEA) by $10 million each.
  The NEH is vital to our educational systems and provides numerous 
services in the area of the humanities. The NEH provides grants to 
individuals and institutions. These grants support valuable aspects of 
the humanities such as research in the humanities; educational 
opportunities for teachers; the preservation of texts and materials; 
translations of important works; museum exhibitions, television and 
radio programs; and public discussion and study.
  The humanities encompass a wide variety of subject matter. They are 
all around us and evident in our daily lives. When you visit an 
exhibition on ``The Many Realms of King Arthur'' at your local library, 
that is the humanities. When you read the diary of a 17th-century New 
England midwife, that is the humanities. When you watch an episode of 
``The Civil War,'' that is the humanities, too. The humanities include 
the study of literature, history, philosophy, religion, art, history, 
and archaeology.
  NEH also provides many educational tools for children. Most recently, 
the NEH has provided students with the educational foundations 
necessary for the use of the internet. NEH maintains EDSITEment, a 
gateway Web site that provides links to 49 sites carefully selected for 
their quality of educational content and design. Instead of having to 
sift through more than 65,000 humanities-related sites on the Web, 
anyone seeking the best humanities education materials on the Internet 
can easily find and access them through EDSITEment. Each site comes 
with lesson plans offering suggestions on how to use the materials 
effectively in the classroom.
  NEH works closely with schools and is currently awarding grants to 
schools around the nation through an initiative called ``Schools for a 
New Millennium,'' which will enable those schools to become models of 
how teachers, principals, librarians, and the community can fully 
incorporate CD-ROM's and the Internet into their everyday teaching.
  To increase its efficiency, the NEH is organized into three 
divisions--Education and Research, Preservation and Access, and Public 
Program--and three offices--Challenge Grants, Federal/State 
Partnership, and Enterprise.
  The Hogg Middle School in my district received a grant from the NEH 
to do a historical study of the Heights, an area in my district, which 
will be published on the world-wide-web along the side and connected to 
the official online guide to Texas history. This is a tremendous 
achievement that could only be done with the help of the NEH.
  The NEA is an independent agency of the Federal government charged 
with supporting the arts in America for All Americans. The NEA carries 
out their mission through grants, leadership initiatives, partnership 
agreements with state and regional organizations, partnerships with 
other Federal agencies and the private sector, research, arts 
education, access programs, and advocacy.
  Since 1965, the example at the Federal level has led to the 
establishment of public arts agencies in every state and the creation 
of seven regional arts agencies. Public arts agencies in small towns 
and cities have grown to over 3,800. Through the NEA partnerships, they 
have helped to increase the amount of private donations to the arts. 
For every dollar the endowment awards, other sources contribute $12 to 
make art happen in thousands of communities.
  The NEA in Texas has provided money for such programs to the Houston 
Symphony Society, the Houston International Jazz Festival, the Alley 
Theater and the Texas Institute for Arts in Education. These programs 
ensure that Houston, TX, will remain a hub of arts and culture for 
years to come, and I look forward to their continuing important work.
  Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support funding for both the 
NEA and the NEH.

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