District Of Columbia 2025-2026 Regular Session

District Of Columbia Council Bill B26-0130 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1
2	2	OFFICE OF CHAIRMAN PHIL MENDELSON
3	3	COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
4	4
5	5	Statement of Introduction
6	6
7	7	“Stability and Equity in Arts Grantmaking Amendment Act of 2025”
8	8
9	9	Today I am introducing the Stability and Equity in Arts Grantmaking Amendment Act of
10	10	2025. This bill would create statutory stability in grantmaking at the Commission on the Arts and
11	11	Humanities in its General Operation Support (GOS) grant program. Between the Fiscal Year 2024
12	12	and Fiscal Year 2025 General Operation Support grant cycles, 108 out of 166 GOS grantees saw
13	13	a reduction in the award amount – 16 of which saw a reduction of 60% each – despite the overall
14	14	GOS budget staying nearly identical between the two cycles. Several of the grantees not only
15	15	received a cut, but the cut is contrary to the guidance provided by the Arts Commission last year
16	16	which stated that its policy is to ensure that grantees will not experience more than a $10,000
17	17	fluctuation in their award amount, and that certain funding ranges would be tied to organizations
18	18	with certain annual expenses. The Commission ignoring its own policies, which are not in law,
19	19	can cause tremendous instability, especially for mid- size and smaller organizations.
20	20
21	21	To address this, the Stability and Equity in Arts Grantmaking Amendment Act of 2025
22	22	would establish that GOS award amounts should be proportionally tied to organizational expenses
23	23	– a policy already used in practice by the Arts Commission. However, the bill does this in an
24	24	equitable manner whereby base award amounts are based on an organization’s proportional annual
25	25	expenses. Since larger, more well -funded organizations have an outsized share of expenses as
26	26	compared to smaller organizations, the legislation places a cap on the maximum award amount s,
27	27	regardless of an organization’s proportional share. Moreover, the bill places a floor on grant
28	28	awards for organizations to ensure adequate funding to support small and mid-sized organizations.
29	29
30	30	The bill also places new guardrails on what organizations are eligible for grants to ensure
31	31	that incredibly large national arts institutions with budgets in excess of $100 million aren’t being
32	32	awarded grants that are better targeted to our locally anchored arts organizations. This bill would
33	33	also clarify that awardees must have an active Board of Directors, have more than half of their
34	34	activities and programs occur within the District, and have a primary mission of focusing on the
35	35	arts, arts education, or the humanities. Moreover, the bill would set clear criteria for consideration
36	36	of supplemental GOS award funding including the quality of the organization’s programming or
37	37	services, the charitable or philanthropic work of organizations in lifting up other artists and
38	38	organizations, and encouraging diversity in organizational governance and administration.
39	39
40	40	Enshrining many of the equity goals built into the current Commission policies will ensure
41	41	that future grants are awarded on an equitable basis. Moreover, given the uncertain future of
42	42	revenue dedicated to the Arts Commission , it is more important now than ever to ensure that
43	43	guardrails are built into the law to ensure stability and equity to support our arts organizations. 1
44	44
45	45	_________________________ 1
46	46	Chairman Phil Mendelson 2
47	47	3
48	48	4
49	49	A BILL 5
50	50	6
51	51	_______ 7
52	52	8
53	53	IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 9
54	54	10
55	55	_______________________ 11
56	56	12
57	57	To amend the Commission on the Arts and Humanities Act to provide for stability and equity in 13
58	58	the awarding of General Operating Support grants to arts organizations, and to remove 14
59	59	obsolete provisions of law. 15
60	60	16
61	61	BE IT ENACTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this 17
62	62	act may be cited as the “Stability and Equity in Arts Grantmaking Amendment Act of 2025”. 18
63	63	Sec 2. The Commission on the Arts and Humanities Act, effective October 21, 1975 19
64	64	(D.C. Law 1-22; D.C. Official Code § 39-201 et seq.), is amended as follows: 20
65	65	(a) Section 4 (D.C. Official Code § 39-203) is amended as follows: 21
66	66	(1) Subsection (a-1) is amended to read as follows: 22
67	67	“(a-1)(1) The Commission shall consist of 12 members appointed by the Mayor, with the 23
68	68	advice and consent of the Council, in accordance with section 2(e)(32) of the Confirmation Act 24
69	69	of 1978, effective March 3, 1979 (D.C. Law 2-142; D.C. Official Code § 1-523.01(e)(32)). 25
70	70	“(2) Each member appointed to the Commission shall be a District resident who 26
71	71	has displayed an interest or an ability in the arts or humanities or has been active in the 27
72	72	furtherance of the arts or humanities in the District of Columbia. 28
73	73	“(3) When appointing members to the Commission, the Mayor shall give due 29
74	74	consideration to recommendations made by representative civic, educational, and professional 30
75	75	groups concerned with the arts, humanities, and culture, and shall maintain reasonable 31 2
76	76
77	77	representation of all the various geographic areas and neighborhoods within the District of 32
78	78	Columbia.”. 33
79	79	(2) Subsection (b) is amended to read as follows: 34
80	80	“(b) All members of the Commission shall be appointed to 3-year terms that shall 35
81	81	commence on July 1 in the year of appointment and expire on June 30 of the 3rd year.”. 36
82	82	(3) Subsection (b-1) is repealed. 37
83	83	(b) Section 6(c-1) (D.C. Official Code § 39-205(c-1)) is amended to read as follows: 38
84	84	“(c-1) The Commission shall allocate the annual budget as follows: 39
85	85	“(1) Not more than 20% of the annual budget shall be allocated for administrative 40
86	86	costs. 41
87	87	“(2) The funds remaining after the allocation described in paragraph (1) of this 42
88	88	subsection shall be allocated for grants for the following purposes: 43
89	89	“(A) 12.0% for grants to fund capital projects in support of eligible arts 44
90	90	and humanities organizations; 45
91	91	“(B) 50.0% for General Operating Support grants to eligible arts and 46
92	92	humanities organizations to be administered pursuant to section 6e; 47
93	93	“(C ) 22.0% for other art grant programs established by the Commission; 48
94	94	and 49
95	95	“(D) 4.0% the for the Humanities Grant Program administered by 50
96	96	HumanitiesDC. 51
97	97	“(E) 12.0% for a large capital grant program to be administered pursuant 52
98	98	to section 6d.” 53
99	99	(c) Section 6c (D.C. Official Code § 39-205.03) is repealed. 54
100	100	(d) A new Section 6e is added to read as follows: 55 3
101	101
102	102	“Sec. 6e. General operating support grants program. 56
103	103	“(a) There is established within the Commission a General Operating Support Grants 57
104	104	program to provide subgrants to eligible organizations for offsetting the operating expenses of 58
105	105	eligible organizations. 59
106	106	“(b) For purposes of this section, the term “organization average expenses” shall mean 60
107	107	the organization’s expenses averaged from its two most recent Annual Form 990 filings 61
108	108	“(c) Eligibility for a general operating support grant shall be limited to organizations that: 62
109	109	“(1) Are incorporated as a nonprofit with a federally designated tax-exempt status 63
110	110	under section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code and have a 64
111	111	principal business office address within in the District of Columbia, not including a Post Office 65
112	112	Box, as evidenced by the organization’s most recent Internal Revenue Service Annual Form 990 66
113	113	filing; 67
114	114	“(2) Have provided the organization’s two most recent Internal Revenue Service 68
115	115	Annual Form 990 filings with its grant application; 69
116	116	“(3) Have less than $100 million in organization average expenses; 70
117	117	“(4) Have a primary mission focusing on the arts or humanities disciplines such 71
118	118	that the majority the organization’s activities are related to the arts, arts education, or the 72
119	119	humanities; 73
120	120	“(5) Have an active Board of Directors ; and 74
121	121	“(6) Have at least 51% of its activities or programs occur within the District of 75
122	122	Columbia. 76
123	123	“(d)(1) The base general operating funding amount for each eligible organization shall be 77
124	124	calculated as follows: 78 4
125	125
126	126	“(A) Determining the aggregate sum of all eligible organization average 79
127	127	expenses; 80
128	128	“(B) Dividing each individual organization’s average expenses by the sum 81
129	129	determined in subparagraph (A); and 82
130	130	“(C) Multiplying the amount calculated in subparagraph (B) by 2. 83
131	131	“(2) If the base general operating funding amount calculated under paragraph (1) 84
132	132	for an organization is more than one percent (1.0%) of the annual amount budgeted pursuant to 85
133	133	Section 6(c-1)(2)(B) of this act, the base funding amount for such organization shall be equal to 86
134	134	such one percent (1.0%) amount and such organization shall not be allocated additional funds 87
135	135	pursuant to subsection (e). 88
136	136	“(3) If the base general operating funding amount calculated under paragraph (1) 89
137	137	for an organization is less than three-quarters of one-tenth percent (0.075%) of the annual 90
138	138	amount budgeted pursuant to Section 6(c-1)(2)(B) of this act, the base general operating funding 91
139	139	amount for such organization shall be equal to such three-quarters of one-tenth percent (0.075%), 92
140	140	provided that for an organization where the base general operating funding amount calculated 93
141	141	pursuant to this paragraph exceeds 50% of the organization average expenses, such organization 94
142	142	shall be awarded a base general operating funding amount equal to 50% of the organization 95
143	143	average expenses and such organization shall not be allocated additional funds pursuant to 96
144	144	subsection (e) of this section. 97
145	145	“(e)(1) Funds budgeted pursuant to Section 6(c-1)(2)(B) of this act remaining after 98
146	146	allocating base funds pursuant to subsection (d) of this section shall be awarded as supplemental 99
147	147	general operating funding amounts. 100
148	148	“(2) Supplemental general operating funding amounts shall be competitive, and 101
149	149	each application of an eligible organization shall be reviewed in cohorts of similar budget size, 102 5
150	150
151	151	and with award amounts tiered in relation to the grantee’s budget size. In awarding supplemental 103
152	152	operating funding amounts, the Commission shall take into account: 104
153	153	“(A) The quality of the organization’s programming or services; 105
154	154	“(B) Charitable and philanthropic activities of the organization that make a 106
155	155	positive impact on the District, residents, or artists; 107
156	156	“(C) Diversity in governance, management, and administration of the 108
157	157	organization; 109
158	158	“(D) Economic impact on the District ; and 110
159	159	“(E) Other factors as determined by the Commission.”. 111
160	160	(e) Section 7 (D.C. Official Code § 39-206) is repealed. 112
161	161	Sec. 3. Fiscal impact statement. 113
162	162	The Council adopts the fiscal impact statement in the committee report as the fiscal 114
163	163	impact statement required by section 602(c)(3) of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, 115
164	164	approved December 24, 1973 (87 Stat. 813; D.C. Official Code § 1-206.02(c)(3)). 116
165	165	Sec. 4. Effective date. 117
166	166	This act shall take effect following approval by the Mayor (or in the event of veto by the 118
167	167	Mayor, action by the Council to override the veto) and a 30-day period of congressional review 119
168	168	as provided in section 602(c)(2) of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, approved December 120
169	169	24, 1973 (87 Stat. 788; D.C. Official Code § 1-206.02(c)(2)). 121