DOGE cuts impact humanities in Washington and Oregon

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Federal Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is canceling or rescinding grant contracts nationwide that were supposed to go to the National Endowment for the Humanities.

“It is unthinkable that this funding was pulled,” said Bradley Richardson, the executive director at the Clark County Historical Museum. 

“How do you plan for the future when a core part of your budget for decades suddenly disappears?” said Adam Davis, the executive director for Oregon Humanities. 

The Oregon and Washington branches of the NEH which gives funds to nonprofits including the Historic Trust, tell us they have already started pulling grants from small groups and looking at canceling speaking events. 

“We bring the public into these beautiful buildings to hear these speakers talk about all range of issues and topics, from social history to arts and culture to other civic issues,” said Temple Lentz, president and CEO of the Historic Trust. “That meant that those programs now are in jeopardy. ”

“Disappointed. I feel like we’re letting down our partners around the state, and I think there’s an element of disrespect that I’m trying to get my head around,” said Davis

Richardson, who is also on the board for Humanities in Washington, said programs to help children are at risk. 

“We’ve all seen through the pandemic, there’s been huge amounts of reading loss. It’s not a time to be pulling the rug out from kids and families that are reading together,” said Richardson. 

The Director of Oregon Humanities said they are losing half of their operational budget totaling around $500,000.

“We still need to scale back significantly but we’re going to be around. We’ll just be a different organization,” said Davis. 

“We’re seeing these cuts. We’re also seeing those cuts. We’re seeing these tariffs. We’re seeing those taxes. When’s it going to stop?” said Lentz. 

The Oregon and Washington organizations are looking how to fight these changes through the courts, arguing that it can’t be legal to take garnt funding back that was already promised by congress.