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By Kathleen Shannon - Producer, Contact - News
Big Sky Connection - Nearly 81% of Humanities Montana's funding comes from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which has been cut by the Trump administration. Three humanities organizations filed a lawsuit on account of the cuts. Comments by Paula Krebs, executive director, Modern Language Association.
Click on the image above for the audio. Funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities reached all 56 Montana counties in 2024 via libraries, museums, community organizations and schools, according to Humanities Montana. (Adobe Stock)
Kathleen Shannon
May 15, 2025 - Supporters of the National Endowment for the Humanities say President Donald Trump's cuts to the agency disproportionately impact rural Americans - and break the law. More than 80% of Montana Humanities' revenue came from the endowment in 2023, or more than $800,000 dollars. The Department of Government Efficiency terminated that funding in April. Roughly 17,000 people attended Montana Humanities programs last year, and more than half of them live in rural counties.
Paula Krebs, executive director of the Modern Language Association, said her group is one of three bringing a lawsuit to stop the move.
"We're aiming to roll back the effects of the DOGE cuts and the DOGE interference in the operations of the NEH - and return the NEH to the functions that Congress has statutorily required it to serve," she explained.
Endowment officials announced the agency is cutting grants that are not in alignment with the administration's priorities, including those that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. The NEH said it is now working to promote the United States' 250th birthday and American exceptionalism.
Cuts to state councils from the endowment total more than $65 million, and have resulted in the cancellation of more than 1,400 open grants. Krebs said the endowment is not just for authors, playwrights and filmmakers: it's important for all Americans.
"How we understand our literature, our film, our history, our art - all of that is the humanities," she continued. "And the government's investment in that is an investment in us being Americans who understand the culture in which we live."
The Trump administration's 2026 budget proposal calls for the elimination of the endowment.
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PNS - Thursday, May 15, 2025 - Trump administration's proposed 2026 budget would cut housing programs for millions of low-income rural Americans from Maine to Iowa, independent medical practices and physicians are becoming rare, and New Mexico maintains its democratic governance of acequias.
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PNS - Thursday, May 15, 2025 - House Republicans get closer to enacting billions in Medicaid cuts. The Israeli government says it'll resume humanitarian aid in Gaza, and Montana's governor signs a law tightening the voter registration window.
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