Trump admin sued over efforts to dismantle National Endowment for Humanities
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Supporters of the National Endowment for the Humanities said cuts to the agency by President Donald Trump hurt Americans' access to art and culture and breaks the law.
In April, the Department of Government Efficiency terminated grants to individual recipients and humanities councils in 56 states and territories, including Virginia. DOGE also fired 65 percent of the endowment's staff.
A group of three humanities organizations, including the Modern Language Association, filed a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration's move. Virginia Humanities receives more than 20 percent of its funding of its funding from the endowment and had its operating budget slashed by DOGE.
Paula Krebs, executive director of the Modern Language Association, said the lawsuit is meant to restore the endowment to its original, legally binding mission.
"We're aiming to roll back the effects of the DOGE cuts and the DOGE interference in the operations of the NEH," Krebs explained. "And return the NEH to the functions that Congress has statutorily required it to serve."
Endowment officials announced the agency is cutting grants not in alignment with the administration's priorities, including those that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. The endowment said it is now working to promote the United States' 250th birthday and American exceptionalism.
Cuts to state councils from the endowment total more than $65 million and have resulted in the cancellation of more than 1,400 open grants, including $2 million for Virginia Humanities. Krebs stressed the endowment is not just for authors, playwrights or filmmakers, it is important for all Americans.
"How we understand our literature, our film, our history, our art: all of that is the humanities," Krebs outlined. "We live that every day, and the government's investment in that is an investment in us being Americans who understand the culture in which we live."
The Trump administration's 2026 budget proposal calls for the elimination of the endowment.
