On July 19, a bipartisan group of the U.S. House of Representatives, including all five members of the Oregon delegation, voted 297 to 114 to reject an amendment to the Interior appropriations bill that would have cut the budgets of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) by 15% or nearly $23 million. The bill will go forward with $155 million in funding for NEH, reflecting a $2 million increase over FY18 levels and $155 million for the National Endowment for the Arts. This was the first time since 2011 that House members have taken a recorded floor vote on the NEH and NEA. The Trump Administration has proposed ending the endowments for both agencies.

Since 1983, UO researchers and programs have received more than 100 NEH grants for scholarly research and the preservation of cultural and educational resources. NEH grant funds have supported faculty, UO Libraries, the Museum of Natural and Cultural History and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Additional examples of NEH and NEA-funded projects by UO researchers include the preservation of indigenous languages and the digitizing of 300,000 pages of historic Oregon newspapers.