50 HOUSE MEMBERS JOIN STEARNS IN QUESTIONING NEA ON MISUSE OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS

Washington, Jul 31, 2009 - “Our nation’s unemployment rate is at a 26-year high, and tax dollars from the Stimulus Act are supporting offensive and indecent art projects; these are funds intended to create permanent jobs, not to feed prurient interests,” stated Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL). “I find it unconscionable that taxpayers are funding objectionable and obscene movies, plays and exhibitions.”

The National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) received $50 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to distribute grants to art organizations. Stearns found that these grants went to organizations that support offensive projects.

In response, Stearns, joined by 50 House members, sent a letter to Patrice Walker Powell, the Acting Chairman of the NEA. Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA), Chairman of the Values Action Team, was among those signing the letter. Pitts noted, “Once again, the NEA is funding projects that are an affront to the morals and sensibilities of most Americans. This is an offensive and wasteful use of taxpayer dollars.”

In the letter, Stearns notes examples of indecent projects. The NEA provided $50,000 to the Frameline film house, which recently screened Thundercrack, “the world’s only underground kinky art porno horror film complete with four men, three women and a gorilla.” CounterPULSE received $25,000 to fund the weekly production of Perverts Put Out, a “long-running pansexual performance series” that invites guests to “join your fellow pervs for some explicit, twisted fun.” A grant of $25,000 went to Jess Curtis/Gravity, Inc., whose most recent work is the Symmetry Project where nude couples, including children, are mounted on each other in various poses.

“Where is the emphasis on accountability in the budget that President Obama promised in his speech at the Joint Session of Congress?” added Stearns. “Vice President Biden is supposed to exercise full responsibility over this stimulus funding, does he know about this wasteful spending? Our intent is not to censor artistic freedom. The fundamental question is why is the federal government supporting artists that taxpayers have refused to support in the open market place?” Stearns’ letter requests that Powell provide the criteria used in distributing these grants and what steps, if any, are being taken to ensure that tax dollars are not used on such repulsive art projects.

PDF of Letter