DOGE cuts to Kentucky Humanities funding could be illegal, director says

KENTUCKY (FOX 56) — Cuts to federal programs in the Trump administration’s mission to eliminate waste are having an effect at home. The Kentucky Humanities Council has lost more than half of its funding in a move the director said could be illegal.

“To take it from what we were working with down to zero was overwhelming,” executive director Bill Goodman told FOX 56 News.

It’s their job to tell the Bluegrass state’s story, Kentucky Humanities Council has been around for more than 50 years, overseen by the National Endowment for the Humanities, which funds about 70 percent of the council’s budget.

“The national endowment are the ones that divides up the money that Congress appropriates and sends it down to us. They’re the only ones that can take that funding away,” Goodman explained. “If you don’t want to fund us, change the law. Don’t just send an independent agency in and take our funding away overnight,” he said.

Goodman said, while this is certainly not the first attempt at cutting federal arts funding, it’s the first time Congress has remained silent about it. Goodman explained that about $65 million was being distributed across the 56 humanities councils around the nation. Earlier this month, Goodman and all other council heads received a letter from the Department of Government Efficiency informing them that all that funding is being terminated.

“In the middle of a year, by the way, when we’ve got programs scheduled and lined up,” Goodman said.

Some of those programs include Chautauqua performers retelling Kentucky history, the Kentucky Book Festival, or “Prime Time,” a family reading program.

“They’re reading books. They’re learning to converse about what they’re reading. They get to take a book home. They come back next week. It’s a six-week program. I would say, ‘Now tell that kid that he doesn’t deserve to take that book home,’” Goodman said, explaining his appeal to those who are supportive of the cuts.

Goodman hopes all programs won’t be dropped or cut but said the organization will have to do some belt-tightening to keep its programs afloat. Donations have only represented a third of the organization’s overall budget. He has encouraged people upset about the situation to contact their congressional leaders and expects a suit to be filed in the near future representing all 56 councils.