PA Museums Advocacy and Legislative Update

Pennsylvania's House and Senate are on a break from session days until September with the budget up in the air for now. One lawmaker in the House resigned her seat last week to run for a different office, so that chamber is back to being tied until a special election scheduled for September 19. The Senate returns to session September 18, and the House will be back on September 26. Signals from lawmakers this week suggested the budget could be tackled in August, or it may be left hanging until October. State agencies have received guidance on how and what to spend money on during this period in which there is no authorization for spending, and Pennsylvania continues to collect revenue during this time.

PA Museums expected an announcement last week from the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) and the Governor's Office about the grant awards in the DCED's COVID 19 ARPA PA Arts and Culture Recovery Program, a $15 million one time grant program that included museums and historical organizations in its eligibility guidelines. Staff at DCED let us know that the Commonwealth Financing Authority (CFA) did not have the authorization of the specific grant awards on its agenda in July; the CFA's next meeting is September 19. If your organization applied for funding and operates on a calendar year budget, you may have to adjust your expectations accordingly. The program attracted 443 applications requesting over $80 million in funding, according to DCED staff.

PA Museums is watching for bills that may effect the way museums do business. There is currently a House bill and a Senate memo circulating called Michael's Law that is meant to improve access for people with disabilities. We welcome feedback from our membership about it; PA Museums is sometimes invited to offer opinions on bills like this from policy leaders. 

PA Museums strongly supports SB228, a bill about how museums and history organizations can deal with unclaimed or abandoned property and loans,, and we will be encouraging lawmakers to consider it in the Senate State Government Committee so that it can move forward in the process to becoming enacted.

FEDERAL LEVEL

The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) has asked its constituency to contact members of the U.S. House about museum funding in the developing federal budget. Funding for the Office of Museum Services (OMS), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) need everyone's support ahead of the October 1 federal budget deadline. Please click here to use AAM's templates to let your members of the U.S. House and Senate know OMS funding is critical for the field. This is the link to support NEH and NEA funding.

AAM has also been busy with its annual AAM Invite Congress to Your Museum effort. Please click here to learn more and participate.