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Arts Group Gives State
Delegation Good Grade;
Illinois Lawmakers Get B for Funding
By Charles
Storch - The Chicago Tribune
October
19, 2004
A national
arts advocacy group is to release Tuesday its first congressional report card,
giving Illinois' House delegation an overall grade of B on votes to support
federal arts funding.
Americans for the Arts Action Fund assigned letter grades to all members of the
House.
The grades are based on 11 measures or other factors affecting the arts, with
most weight given to votes on appropriations for the National Endowment for the
Arts.
The Washington-based group did not grade the Senate because no arts-specific
votes were taken in that chamber. The more "arts-friendly" the voting, the
higher the grade.
Nina Ozlu, the group's vice president, said the House averaged a B and said her
group was pleased by that indication of bipartisanship.
"Our challenge will be to secure larger increases for federal funding of the
arts through the NEA," she said.
In Illinois, the report card gave all the Democrats at least an A. Reps. Danny
Davis and Jan Schakowsky
both got an A+.
No Republican received an A+, but Reps. Mark Kirk, Judy Biggert, Timothy Johnson
and Ray LaHood received A's. No Illinois lawmakers got B's or C's but D's went
to Reps. Henry Hyde, Phil Crane, Jerry Weller, Don Manzullo and John Shimkus.
The remaining Republican, Speaker Dennis Hastert, received an incomplete because
the speaker usually does not vote on bills.
The delegations with the highest numerical scores were Vermont, Connecticut,
Delaware and Hawaii. Of states with delegations of 10 or more members,
Massachusetts and New York led the pack. Illinois was 15th overall.
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