On June 10, the Trump administration laid off an estimated 100 workers on the Nationwide Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as a part of a “discount in drive,” in response to USA At this time. Since then, about two-thirds of the group’s employees have misplaced their jobs. Fewer than 60 workers are thought to stay on the authorities company.
“A serious company restructuring is underway with out the suitable planning wanted to make sure the continuity of operations,” the NEH’s union, the American Federation of Authorities Workers Native 3403, stated in an announcement. “These drastic modifications … characterize an existential menace to these establishments and people who depend on assist from NEH to analysis, protect, and interpret our shared heritage.”
Based in 1965, the NEH has awarded greater than $6 billion in grants to museums, historic websites, universities, libraries, and associated organizations.
Cuts from the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) already halted all remaining funding to the NEH for the 2025 fiscal yr. DOGE additionally reduce $65 million from the NEH’s general $210 million funds and tried to fireside roughly 65 % of its workers. These funds have as a substitute been funneled into the creation of President Donald Trump’s Nationwide Backyard of American Heroes, amongst different tasks.
A lawsuit blocked the deliberate “discount in drive” on the NEH, however the brand new layoffs weren’t introduced on the time of that case.
“It’s absurd to suppose that grant {dollars} that have been getting used to do issues like publish President George Washington’s writings, restore Mark Twain’s artifacts and assist civics training are as a substitute being directed to fee statues. Whereas NEH workers have the experience to assist present historic context about these people and their affect, commissioning the artworks falls nicely outdoors of the company’s purview. Historical past just isn’t one thing that may be set in stone”, the NEH’s union informed the Artwork Newspaper.
A number of organizes have filed lawsuits towards the NEH, in search of to halt what some have described because the group’s “dismantling.” The image appears to be like to solely worsen subsequent yr: a proposed 2026 federal funds features a plan to get rid of the NEH, the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts, and the Institute of Museum and Library Providers.
A Reuters overview of presidency company departures discovered that they’ve been reduce by practically 12 %, with 260,000 of the two.3 million federal civilian workforce having been laid off up to now.
The gutting of federal companies continues amid an ongoing feud between President Trump and former head of DOGE Elon Musk, who informed the Washington Submit, “The federal forms state of affairs is way worse than I spotted.”
