
Core Message: A humanities education provides individuals from all disciplines with the critical thinking and problem-solving knowledge and skillsets needed to address complex health, security, climate, and societal challenges. The humanities also help prepare individuals for full participation in a modern democracy. We urge Congress to support humanities research and education by increasing funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in its FY25 appropriations.
Problem: The NEH is the only federal agency that funds the entire range of academic fields in the humanities. However, NEH funding for competitive grant awards to universities, nonprofit institutions, and scholars has been steadily eroding; NEH grants are now at one of the lowest funding rates in the agency’s 50-year-plus history.
What’s at Stake: Humanities research and education are vital to both cultivating a broadly educated workforce ready to compete in the knowledge-based, global 21st-century economy as well as creating a learned citizenry. Without robust and sustained funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities, the United States risks losing its status as the global leader in humanities research and scholarship as well as weakening the civic and cultural fabric of our nation.
Solution: We urge Congress to provide at least $225 million for the NEH in FY25. This level of funding builds upon recent modest increases and would allow the agency to continue to rebuild its capacity to support peer-reviewed humanities research, education, and community programs.
Additional Talking Points:
- While we acknowledge the increased funding levels allocated in FY23, the proposed flat funding for FY24 falls short of our expectations. It is imperative that we prioritize increasing funding to the NEH to $225 million for FY25 to adequately support its vital initiatives.
- For the cost of less than 50 cents per American, NEH grants support the humanities nationwide, including history, English, and civics, which are fundamental to learning and essential for full participation in a modern democracy. The NEH provides opportunities for collaboration among students and faculty and helps sustain the pipeline of young humanities researchers and scholars.
- NEH grants address the needs of veterans in innovative ways not being met elsewhere. The NEH’s “Warrior-Scholar Project” prepares veterans for college through a weeklong academic boot camp grounded in humanities texts and writing assignments. According to the National Humanities Alliance, 42% of veterans who complete the program enroll in highly ranked universities.
- The NEH enables cutting-edge research and understanding of our history and culture. The NEH has supported research that has led to 17 Pulitzer Prize-winning books and 22 Bancroft Prizes, research that has shaped our understanding of politics, literature, philosophy, and history.
- Finding solutions to complex health, economic, security, and societal challenges depends in part on knowledge and lessons learned from the humanities – history, language, linguistics, ethics, religion, and more – combined with sciences and engineering. For example, making the connection between the humanities and the development and application of artificial intelligence to address complex human behaviors affecting health, climate, transportation, and other areas where human values and culture are impactful.
- Analysts in the major national intelligence and security agencies are, to a great extent, humanists and social scientists. The Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative is an important example of the link between the humanities and national security. This university-based social sciences and humanities research initiative improves our armed services’ understanding of the social, cultural, behavioral, and political forces that shape regions of the world of strategic importance to the United States.
- Humanities are core to our democracy and citizenry. Initiatives focused on civics and history education and projects that explore the nation’s quest to create a more just and inclusive society, such as the NEH’s “A More Perfect Union,” are at risk without robust funding.
- We urge Congress to continue the longstanding practice of funding NEH at the same level as the National Endowment for the Arts.
NEH Funding by the Numbers:
- FY23 & FY24 Final Funding Level: $207 million
- FY24 Presidents Budget Request: $211 million (+$4 M or 1.9% over FY23 Final)
- FY25 Presidents Budget Request: TBD
- AAU FY24 & FY25 Recommendation: $225 million (+$18 M or +8.7% over FY23 & FY24 Final)