NM Humanities Council will have to close its doors following latest Trump cuts, director says
A child wearing a top hat advertises registration for New Mexico National History Day Contest, an event supported by the New Mexico Humanities Council. The council learned late Wednesday that it would have to close due to cuts at the National Endowment for the Humanities. (Photo Courtesy NMHC website)
An organization that provides small grants to uplift and explain New Mexico culture and history will have to close its doors, following deep cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities and local humanities councils across the country.
The New Mexico Humanities Council has been around since 1972 and has provided schools, tribes, colleges, cultural centers, libraries and others grants to engage 'New Mexicans with history, culture and humanities topics.'
Recent events that credit the council include a Taos exhibition honoring Hispanic stories of northern New Mexico; a youth history competition; and virtual learning experiences at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces.
'Those will essentially go away,' said Brandon Johnson, executive director of the humanities council, in a phone interview Thursday with Source New Mexico.
Johnson received two letters around 11 p.m. Wednesday from Michael McDonald, the acting director of the National Endowment for the Humanities, related to two NEH grants the council received. About $500,000 had not been awarded to the council, Johnson said, from what online records show were initially $11.3 million contracts.
'NEH has reasonable cause to terminate your grant in light of the fact that the NEH is repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President's agenda,' McDonald wrote in the letter dated April 2, citing a February Trump executive order seeking to reduce the federal bureaucracy.
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'Your grant's immediate termination is necessary to safeguard the interests of the federal government, including its fiscal priorities. The termination of your grant represents an urgent priority for the administration,' McDonald wrote.
The letter goes on to note that an audit may still occur, even though the grants were terminated, and provides a Microsoft email address to contact 'with only urgent questions.'
An unnamed official told NPR that McDonald recently told senior staff of the so-called 'Department of Government Efficiency' team that he wants to 'claw back' $175 million in grant money that has not been disbursed.
A large number of NEH employees will soon be fired, as well, according to the New York Times.
Johnson said the news came as a shock and called the cuts 'very disappointing,' though he acknowledged he'd withheld much stronger words he wanted to say about the abrupt cancellation of the program. He noted that the NEH has enjoyed bipartisan support for decades and that the council here has done great work across the state.
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'That's money that won't go to our New Mexico communities,' he said.
A statement from the National Alliance for the Humanities, an advocacy group, called on members of the public to fight back against the cuts, noting that the spending was already approved by Congress.
'We condemn these actions in the strongest possible terms,' the alliance wrote. 'We support the mission of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the agency staff who make that mission possible, and we call upon Members of Congress to ensure that this crucial government agency fulfills the mandate set by Congress.'
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