DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Washington, D.C., is home to both the Federal Government and to more than half a million American citizens.  I have worked to improve the relationship between the Federal establishment and the Government of the District of Columbia in order to further the goals and spirit of home rule.  The City controls more of its own destiny than was the case four years ago.  Yet, despite the close cooperation between my Administration and that of Mayor Barry, we have not yet seen the necessary number of states ratify the Constitutional Amendment granting full voting representation in the Congress to the citizens of this city.  It is my hope that this inequity will be rectified.  The country and the people who inhabit Washington deserve no less.

THE ARTS

The arts are a precious national resource.

Federal support for the arts has been enhanced during my Administration by expanding government funding and services to arts institutions, individual artists, scholars, and teachers through the National Endowment for the Arts.  We have broadened its scope and reach to a more diverse population.  We have also reactivated the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities.

It is my hope that during the coming years the new Administration and the Congress will: 

—­Continue support of institutions promoting development and understanding of the arts;

—­Encourage business participants in a comprehensive effort to achieve a truly mixed economy of support for the arts;

—­Explore a variety of mechanisms to nurture the creative talent of our citizens and build audiences for their work;

—­Support strong, active National Endowments for the Arts;

—­Seek greater recognition for the rich cultural tradition of the nation’s minorities;

—­Provide grants for the arts in low-income neighborhoods.

THE HUMANITIES

In recently reauthorizing Federal appropriations for the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Congress has once again reaffirmed that “the encouragement and support of national progress and scholarship in the humanities . . . while primarily a matter for private and local initiative, is also an appropriate matter of concern to the Federal Government” and that “a high civilization must not limit its efforts to science and technology alone but must give full value and support to the other great branches of man’s scholarly and cultural activity in order to achieve a better understanding of the past, a better analysis of the present, and a better view of the future.”