Warren, Massachusetts Lawmakers Sound Alarm on Trump Cuts to National Endowment for the Humanities Staff, Grants
“We write to seek answers about why you are crippling an agency that punches so far above its weight and is essential to enabling access to libraries, museums, archives, historic sites and more for Massachusetts residents and Americans in every state.”
Lawmakers highlight Massachusetts impacts, including canceled projects which helped state capture and preserve history and culture, promote learning, make humanities more accessible
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), along with Representatives Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), Bill Keating (D-Mass.), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Richard Neal (D-Mass.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), sent a letter to Michael McDonald, Acting Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), regarding the impacts of recent staffing cuts and attempts to cancel grants in Massachusetts and across the country.
During the week of April 1, 2025, following the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) recommendations, a majority of NEH staff were placed on administrative leave and hundreds of grants were canceled. In the following days, state humanities councils and other grant recipients received emails notifying them that their funding would be terminated immediately and that the Trump administration would be “repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the president’s agenda.”
“We write to seek answers about why you are crippling an agency that punches so far above its weight and is essential to enabling access to libraries, museums, archives, historic sites and more for Massachusetts residents and Americans in every state,” wrote the lawmakers.
Congressionally appropriated NEH program funds directly benefit local communities. The NEH was founded by Congress in 1965 to “promote progress and scholarship in the humanities and the arts in the United States,” and the agency enables work in the humanities by funding libraries, museums, archives, historic sites, media outlets, research institutions, educators and independent scholars. These cuts will have devastating impacts on cultural institutions and scholarship in Massachusetts and across the country.
The Trump administration’s actions put tremendous financial strain on researchers, universities, and institutions. According to one institution in Massachusetts, the termination notices sent to individual recipients of NEH grants included language that the individuals will remain “subject to audit.” Grant recipients now face concerns that they will have to repay their funds to NEH at an undetermined time.
NEH-funded projects in Massachusetts — including research projects to better understand the impact of war on naval veterans and their families, projects to understand the role of historic textile mills in the American industrial revolution, and programs supporting museums’ efforts to digitize, archive, and modernize the products of Massachusetts art and culture — have enriched the state’s ability to capture and preserve history and culture, promote new knowledge and learning, and make the humanities more accessible.
“These actions at NEH mark another instance of overreach by the Trump administration, causing more destruction and devastation to research institutions and scholars across the country, but providing little in savings,” wrote the lawmakers.
Senator Warren has consistently pressed for answers on other federal funding cuts impacting Massachusetts, including those from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) causing “ongoing chaos” and harm to research institutions across Massachusetts.
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