On Thursday, the Federation of State Humanities Councils and Oregon Humanities jointly filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Oregon against the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for “the disruption and attempted destruction” of the NEH and 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils.
As part of the suit, the organizations are seeking the restoration of terminated grants and to ensure that congressional appropriations flow to humanities councils.
When the grants were canceled following extreme cuts made by DOGE, many organizations and humanities councils said they could no longer effectively fulfill their duties to local communities without fiscal means.
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“Funding for the humanities benefits every single American, and support for this work and humanities councils has historically been bipartisan,” Phoebe Stein, president of the Federation of State Humanities Councils, said in a statement. “Federal dollars from NEH flow through the state and jurisdictional humanities councils to community organizations in nearly every county in the country. State and jurisdictional humanities councils help veterans heal, teach children to read skillfully and think critically, and provide grants to community projects that simply would not happen without these resources. Even the loss of one humanities council would be one too many in what has been a powerful network serving the American public.”
This is the latest suit to be filed against DOGE and the NEH among others. The Authors Guild also filed one earlier this week, and three other humanities organizations did so at the beginning of the month.
Just last week, art directors and senior leaders left the NEH while regional arts organizations across the United States spoke out against the recent cuts.
The NEH has awarded more than $6 billion in grants to museums, historical sites, universities, libraries, and related organizations since it was founded in 1965. Through its grants, the NEH has long supported a variety of creative initiatives and projects. The NEH was started under the same legislation as the National Endowment for the Arts, which offers offers financial assistance for projects, shows, and exhibitions that exude excellence.