Contact Congress on FY ’13 NEH and Title VI/Fulbright-Hays Funding

The National Coalition for History urges you to contact your Representative and ask him or her to support robust funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and Title VI/ Fulbright-Hays International Education and Foreign Language programs in the fiscal year 2013 appropriations bills that have begun to work their way through Congress. NOTE: The deadline has passed.

You can also contact your Representative by calling the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. The deadline to sign the letter is March 16.

A “Dear Colleague” letter currently circulating in the House by Representative David Price (D-NC) addresses funding needs for NEH. The letter, addressed to the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies, requests $154.3 million for NEH in FY 2013. This is the same level requested by the President. A copy of the letter is available here.

In addition, please write your Representative and ask him or her to support by signing a “Dear Colleague” letter currently circulating in the House by Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ). The letter, addressed to the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services, and Education, requests no less than $75.729 million for these programs. This is the same level requested by the President. A copy of the letter is available here.

The National Humanities Alliance has set up a template message for you to customize, including sample bullet points. We strongly encourage you to personalize this message, telling Congress why NEH and its programs are important to you, your institution, your field, state, or district. If you have received or worked on an NEH grant, please consider the local or long-term impact of this funding. If possible, cite numbers (e.g. students taught, workshop participants, federal dollars leveraged, program viewers, collections protected, awards received, articles published) where appropriate, and what would be lost without this funding.

The Alliance has also set up a separate template message for the Title VI/Fulbright Hays programs for you to customize, including sample bullet points. Again, we strongly encourage you to personalize this message, telling Congress why these programs are important to you, your institution, your field, state, or district.