Actor and political activist Alec Baldwin said on Capitol Hill Tuesday that Congress should increase funding for the National Endowment for the Arts to $1 billion from its current $146 million budget.
“You can’t find the spending in federal dollars that has the resonance that these programs do and as I said last night at that lecture, not only do we need to maintain levels from, you know, 1992 and 2011, we need more,” Baldwin said, referring to the 25th Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy which he delivered at the Kennedy Center on April 16.
“We need to be spending a billion dollars on the National Endowment for the Arts in this country.”
Baldwin was on Capitol Hill Tuesday meeting with lawmakers for Arts Advocacy Day alongside celebrities including musician Ben Folds and “So You Think You Can Dance” judge Nigel Lythgoe.
Following his remarks at the Congressional Arts Kick Off Event, The Daily Caller attempted to ask Baldwin about the upcoming presidential election.
“Not here now, but thank you. We’re here to promote the arts,” Baldwin replied. (RELATED: Alec Baldwin: Working for Capital One ‘might not have been the smartest move’)
In FY2011, the NEA received $154,690,000 in taxpayer funds and $146,020,992 for FY2012.