MPT: Spreading the news

[jon_chaisson]

February 4, 2009
Advocacy Alert

RE: New Senate Amendment to Bar All Museums From Any Economic Recovery Funds

Recommended Action: Call your Senators TODAY and urge them to vote NO on the Coburn "Limitation of Funds Amendment No. 175." To reach your Senators, call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for your Senators' offices. This amendment may be offered as early as Wednesday, February 4.

Urgency:
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has introduced an amendment to prohibit any funds in the economic stimulus bill from going to any museum. The language of the amendment, (Amendment No. 175, as filed) is, "None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater, arts center, or highway beautification project, including renovation, remodeling, construction, salaries, furniture, zero-gravity chairs, big screen televisions, beautification, rotating pastel lights, and dry heat saunas."

Act Now: ACM stands with the American Association of Museums (AAM) and the entire museum community on this key issue impacting all museums. Click BELOW to use AAM's advocacy tools to locate your legislators:

http://www.congressweb.com/cweb4/index.cfm?orgcode=aam

Please call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and urge your Senators to vote NO on the Coburn "Limitation of Funds Amendment No. 175."

Thank you in advance for taking action.

Comments

[anais-ninja.livejournal.com]

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck. We can call all we want, but you know it's going to pass, and that means I will never get a job. I knew it was coming, but I never thought it would actually be written into legislation.

[paft.livejournal.com]

Posted on Thoughtcrimes AND Forever. Call made.

Thank you.

[emmalyon.livejournal.com]

Why he gotta be hatin' on parks? And arts venues? And sports stadiums?
Has the man not heard of creating jobs??
Oh right, he's a republican, so he HASN'T.

[yuwipiwoman.livejournal.com]

Museums are under seige on a lot of fronts. Brandeis University recently decided to close and sell off all of the art from the Rose Art Museum. It contains a small, but prominent collection of 20th Century Work.

http://www.brandeis.edu/rose/rushstatement.html

I'm not understanding how they can really do it. Many gifts to museums come with strings on how and why a museum can sell a work, but their director seems rather alarmed.