President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2026 “Skinny” Budget Request has 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 National AFL-CIO’s Department for Professional Employees released the following statement in response to the proposed elimination of the NEA, NEH and the CPB:

Unions are prepared to fight back again against efforts to eliminate the NEA, NEH and CPB.

Non-profit 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 non-profit productions, documentaries and informational programs that receive funding from the NEA, NEH or the 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 the CPB as an investment that helps put people, including our Members, to work and enriches the fabric of our Democracy.

The AEMI Coalition - the leading voice in the Labor Movement on public policy in the arts, entertainment and media industries, is made up of 12 National Unions that represent Professionals in the Arts, Entertainment, And Media Industries and is led by the DPE: Actors’ Equity Association (Equity); The American Federation of Musicians (AFM); The American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA); The American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA); The Directors Guild of America (DGA); The Guild of Italian American Actors (GIAA); The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts (IATSE); The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW); The Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU); The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA); The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC); and The Writers Guild of America East (WGAE)

The DPE is made up of a coalition of 24 Unions representing more than four million Professional and Technical Union Members.

DPE Affiliate Unions represent Professionals in over 300 occupations in Education and health care, science, engineering and technology, legal, business, and management, media, entertainment and the arts, and public administration.

To Directly Access This Labor News Report, Go To: Arts, Entertainment, and Media Unions Push Back Against Proposed Elimination of the NEA, NEH, and CPB — Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO