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Dear friend of the humanities,

On Monday, March 31, the Federation of State Humanities Councils learned that DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) is targeting the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) with the aim of substantially reducing its staff, cutting the agency’s grant programs, and rescinding grants that have already been awarded. Late Tuesday night, NMHC received a letter purportedly from NEH terminating all of its open humanities grants. 

The New Mexico Humanities Council (NMHC), which is primarily funded by the NEH, and its sister councils across America, will be decimated if these cuts happen! Under these cuts, NMHC will no longer be able to bring quality programming, like the ever-popular Speakers Bureau and the award-winning National History Day, to New Mexico's communities. What's more, grants to local nonprofits will disappear without this essential funding that comes to our state through NEH.

To put it bluntly, if NMHC goes away due to DOGE's cuts, New Mexicans will lose access to funds and resources to carry out:

• Humanities presentations for schools, libraries, and museums, on a wide variety of topics including Pueblo drumming, traditional Nuevomexicano music, African American poetry, and flamenco dance
• Life-saving reading and discussion programs for veterans that honor their service
• Family reading and literacy programs
• Vital support for K-12 teachers and students through National History Day
• Rural museum exhibits and local oral history projects
• Book and cultural festivals that draw tourism and private investment

What can you do to protect the New Mexico Humanities Council and its work?

We need every humanities supporter to make their voice heard. Here are concrete, effective actions you can take now:

STEP 1: Call or message your U.S. senators and representatives and urge them to protect NEH and humanities councils.

You can use this federal action alert from the National Humanities Alliance and paste in our humanities council-focused script (available below). Visit NMHC's website:

www.NMHumanities.org

Take Action

STEP 2: Call or message your state and local elected officials and let them know how this loss of funds will impact your community. You can use this local action alert from the National Humanities Alliance and paste in our humanities council-focused script (available below). Find your humanities council here.

Take Action

STEP 3: Share this action alert on social media, then send it directly to five people in your network and ask them to take action as well.

STEP 4: Join our public mailing list to receive advocacy updates as the situation progresses and learn how you can support humanities councils.

STEP 5: Write an op-ed letter to the editor for your local newspaper explaining why humanities councils are important and the impact these federal dollars have in your state and community.

Script for Contacting Elected Officials:

Protect NEH/ Save the New Mexico Humanities Council

As a constituent, I am [writing/calling] to urgently request that you support the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in the face of the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) attempt to substantially reduce its staff, cut the agency’s grant programs, and rescind grants that have already been awarded.

NEH is the only agency that funds our nation’s 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils, which provide vital cultural services and critical funding to local nonprofit organizations across the nation.

[Say something about your state humanities council here.]

NEH was created by an act of Congress in 1965 and reaffirmed by Republican and Democratic Presidents and legislators over the following 60 years. DOGE’s reductions to the NEH budget and workforce will block the agency’s ability to carry out Congressional intent.

Every Congress for 50 years has supported the state humanities councils and their effective distribution of federal dollars across America. These funds go directly to states (and your district) and allow councils to raise $2 in private investment for every federal dollar spent.

The loss of NEH funding to humanities councils will decimate the ability of these nonprofits to serve communities across our state, eliminating programs that are essential to our region’s cultural infrastructure.

Again, I urge you to protect NEH and NEH funding for humanities councils.