Arts, Entertainment, and Media Unions Push Back Against Proposed Elimination of the NEA, NEH, and CPB
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Katie Barrows
Communications Director
P: 202-549-5991
kbarrows@dpeaflcio.org
WASHINGTON, May 7, 2025 - Last week the Trump Administration released President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2026 “Skinny” Budget Request, which called for eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH), and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
The Arts, Entertainment, and Media Industries (AEMI) coalition within the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO released the following statement in response to the proposed elimination of the NEA, NEH, and CPB:
“Unions are prepared to fight back again against efforts to eliminate the NEA, NEH, and CPB. Nonprofit arts, humanities, and public media enjoy broad, bipartisan public support because they power local economies in every state and expand access to quality artistic and educational content across communities. Shutting down the NEA, NEH, or CPB would be a radical action that would harm everyday people.
The notion that federal funding for the arts, humanities, or public media is a financial burden for working Americans is plainly wrong.
We know firsthand the economic value of federal funding for the arts, humanities, and public media. Many members of our unions earn their living working on nonprofit productions, documentaries, and informational programs that receive funding from the NEA, NEH, or CPB. For some union members, NEA, NEH, and CPB- supported projects served as an entry point to careers in the commercial side of their industries, particularly people who grew up in rural areas far from the country’s larger media markets. These projects also have a positive economic impact for local economies beyond employment, as audiences spend an estimated $38.46 per person, per event, beyond the cost of admission, on goods and services in the communities where they attend arts and cultural programs.
Similarly, we are deeply concerned about the haphazard termination of hundreds of NEA and NEH grants. Many unions’ members who work or anticipated working on the programs supported by these grants now face economic uncertainty as funding disappears and their jobs are eliminated.
Private money cannot fully replace federal funding. Eliminating the NEA, NEH, or CPB will lead to the loss of good, middle-class jobs. The most acute economic pain will be far from the soundstages of Hollywood and bright lights of Broadway. Job losses will be in communities where the NEA may be the only funder for regional theater or at local TV or radio stations that depend on CPB funding.
Congress should continue to increase funding for the NEA, NEH, and CPB as an investment that helps put people, including our members, to work and enriches the fabric of our democracy.”
The AEMI includes:
Actors’ Equity Association (Equity)
American Federation of Musicians (AFM)
American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA)
American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA)
Directors Guild of America (DGA)
Guild of Italian American Actors (GIAA)
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts (IATSE)
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU)
Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA)
Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC)
Writers Guild of America East (WGAE)
About the AEMI
The Arts, Entertainment, and Media Industries (AEMI) coalition is made up of 12 national unions that represent professionals in the arts, entertainment, and media industries and is led by DPE. The AEMI is the leading voice in the labor movement on public policy in the arts, entertainment, and media industries.
About DPE
The Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) is a coalition of 24 unions representing over four million professional and technical union members. DPE affiliate unions represent professionals in over 300 occupations in education and healthcare; science, engineering, and technology; legal, business, and management; media, entertainment, and the arts; and public administration.