Rep. Scalise Supports Bill to Rescind $25 Million to Kennedy Center
“Nancy Pelosi literally held up a bill for days to get her pet projects including the money for the Kennedy Center.”
The Kennedy Center decided to lay off staffers and not pay the musicians after April 3rd despite receiving $25 million in the Wuhan coronavirus bill.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise came out in support of a bill to take back the money while slamming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi over her pet projects.
In the middle of a national emergency, Nancy Pelosi fought to give the Kennedy Center $25 MILLION…and then they stopped paying their musicians anyway.
RT if you agree → Congress should take that money back and give it to hospitals and hardworking families in need. pic.twitter.com/RtY354yUoc
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) March 31, 2020
Scalise told Fox News that the Kennedy Center’s actions show “the misplaced priorities of Speaker Pelosi.” He reminded the audience that while Democrats and Republicans worked together on a bill “Nancy Pelosi literally held up a bill for days to get her pet projects including the money for the Kennedy Center.”
Ed Malaga, president of the Local 161-710 of the American Federation of musicians said:
“This decision, from an organization with an endowment of nearly $100 million, is not only outrageous — coming after the musicians had expressed their willingness to discuss ways to accommodate the Kennedy Center during this challenging time — it is also blatantly illegal under the parties’ collective bargaining agreement. That agreement specifically requires that the center provide six weeks’ notice before it can stop paying musicians for economic reasons.”
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Comments
Put in PBS, NPR, and all funding for the F’arts
(Fine arts) to be cut off immediately also!!!!!
It is INSANE that NPR just got 75 million dollars. INSANE!!!!
And here I foolishly thought that Trump was going to take NPR and PBS off the public tit. Looks like we all got taken on that one.
To paraphrase Frank, it’s “Nancy with the Laughing ….teets….
Just like Ronaldus Amneseus promised. Right after Amtrak.
To be fair to PDJT: he’s stuck with this bill, like he was stuck with the corrupt democrat pork in his first defense build-up: obama and pelosi had destroyed the US military. Literally.
He could not veto the “Pelosi Opera House” bill at this point without destroying the economy.
PDJT deserves better than that comment.
The monument to pelosi’s corruption and swamp elitism and contempt for the middle class of America.
De-fund it from government grants and let the private sector fund that swamp monument to the malignant trash infesting our government and media.
While they’re at it: rename it Trump Center.
Yes, it’s been about 80 years since there was the thinnest excuse for funding things like that.
If you’re in DC and need to use a toilet, use it at the “Pelosi Virus Opera House”.
how about we pull all the pork? And scrutinizes Phase 4.
Shouldn’t have signed on to the Bill then. Or allowed a voice vote to go through. This is why the President needs line-item veto powers.
Careful what you wish for: the line-item veto is a doorway to tyranny.
I disagree. The president can’t add lines, only veto.
Barry,
This was the USSC’s 6-3 reasoning in Treasonous Scumbag – er – Clinton v. City of New York:
The Court held that by canceling only selected portions of the bills at issue, under authority granted him by the Act, the President in effect “amended” the laws before him. Such discretion, the Court concluded, violated the “finely wrought” legislative procedures of Article I as envisioned by the Framers.
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1997/97-1374
Since the R’s don’t control the House, this will never pass.
So what was the $25 million for then? Let’s do some math. There are 96 symphony members laid off. Let’s call it 100 to make the math easy. I don’t know what symphony musicians make, but let’s say they have all in costs of $3000 a week. So the Kennedy Center needs $300K a week to make their payroll. If it takes 10 more weeks to get back to “normal”, that’s $3 million. A small dent in the endowment and a bit of the grant from Uncle Sugar. I don’t get it. Is the clown that runs the Kennedy Center preserving her bonus for being fiscally responsible or making sure politicians get their kickbacks?
“Is the clown that runs the Kennedy Center… making sure politicians get their kickbacks?”
Yes.
That malignant dump is Pelosi’s monument to Pelosi – a place where she can get standing ovations from benefactors of “her” largese with OUR money.
PDJT should make a treaty with the North Koreans that his is the only American target they have permission to strike with a missle – but only when Pelosi is in it.
So even though Trump put the emergency declaration out for Washington state a while ago, dipshit Inslee is still weeks away from being able to extend benefits to sole proprietors.
They can’t even get their guidance straight. First they said apply anyway, now they say wait ANOTHER two weeks before filing.
In the private sector they’d manage this on the back end with a spreadsheet and get the damn money flowing.
I wish to hell ANY media outlet would shine a light on this… unfortunately they all have a laser like focus on trying to find any fault with Trump.
I sympathize, but this is both ex post facto and a bill of attainder.
I don’t agree with that.
How does this single-out the Pelosi Virus Center for “punishment” as an individual for his/her/its political beliefs?
It is neither of those things.
An ex post facto law is a law that retroactively turns a lawful action into an unlawful one. It makes someone a criminal for doing something that he had every right to do at the time. Rescinding a grant doesn’t do that.
A bill of attainder is a law that declares a person guilty of some crime, and imposes an penalty on him, without bothering with a trial, evidence, or any of that. Rescinding a grant doesn’t do that.
Congress decides how to spend money, and it can change its mind just as it can change its mind about any law. Just as it can decide one day to ban ivory and the next day to legalize it again, it can also decide one day to direct the treasury to give the Kennedy Center $25M and the next day to cancel that direction.
We shouldn’t be giving ANY “arts” things any money right now. They’re not necessary and so what if they close down until this is over? I certainly won’t miss them. We need that money for actually important things.
Think about it. She could care less about the musicians. The director, or the person who requested the $25M is most likely a Pelosi supporter or in her district or something.
Besides, the bill to rescind the $25M would be packed with additional pork so the new bill would not be -$25M, it would be on the plus side of $500B or so but without the $25B for the Kennedy Center. Never let a pork-barrel bill go to waste.
When I lived in DC, I went to a number of great events at the Kennedy Center. The most memorable was probably the PDQ Bach concert, where we had front-row, center-stage seats. When Schickele played the manicotti and then smashed them, we were covered in pasta fragments.
But I would also have gone to this concert if I had had to pay twice as much. Most people (OK, all of them) that I’ve talked to about this feel the same way. So it certainly might be possible to have the Kennedy Center get by with government handouts.
Why not try it and see if they can do it?
I love PDQ Bach…!!! 🙂
Would have been great to see him live…
Everyone I know who is a PBQ Bach fan played/plays in an orchestra…..so I’ve got to ask, are you a player..???
I played the trumpet for many years, but eventually realized that my musical aptitude was truly abysmal. 🙁
But I did get my honorary degree in Musical Pathology from USNDH for sponsoring the 50th anniversary PDQ Bach concert.
Pelosi turned a great place into rathole of infamy.
Marie Antionette would be hanging out there, if she was alive.
Do they even need to pass a new bill?
There was some language barring companies from taking money if they laid off their employees, wasn’t there?
The President should “interpret” that to include the Kennedy Center grant.
Let them take him to court over it. (Are the courts even open?)
Different section of the bill. This was an outright grant to the Kennedy Center to do with as it wished. No need to pay employees.
Technically, if could cover salaries, but the whole thing is at the discretion of the Swamp Creatures who run the KEnnnedy:
1 JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING
2 ARTS
3 OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE
4 For an additional amount for ‘‘Operations and Main5 tenance’’, $25,000,000, to remain available until Sep6 tember 30, 2021, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to
7 coronavirus, domestically or internationally, including
8 funding for deep cleaning and information technology to
9 improve telework capability and for operations and main10 tenance requirements related to the consequences of
11 coronavirus: Provided, That notwithstanding the provi12 sions of 20 U.S.C. 76h et seq., funds provided under this
13 heading in this Act shall be made available to cover oper14 ating expenses required to ensure the continuity of the
15 John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and its
16 affiliates, including for employee compensation and bene17 fits, grants, contracts, payments for rent or utilities, fees
18 for artists or performers, information technology, and
19 other administrative expenses: Provided further, That no
20 later than October 31, 2020, the Board of Trustees of the
21 Center shall submit a report to the Committees on Appro22 priations of the House of Representatives and Senate that
23 includes a detailed explanation of the distribution of the
24 funds provided herein: Provided further, That such
25 amount is designated by the Congress as being for an
723
O:HENHEN20313.xml [file 2 of 2] S.L.C.
1 emergency requirement pursuant to section
2 251(b)(2)(A)(i) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency
3 Deficit Control Act of 1985.
The only outcome I expect from this is for the Kennedy Center to keep the $25 million and for Pelosi to censure Steve Scalise.
. . . while investigating Trump AGAIN, aiming for another Schiffy impeachment fiasco.
Let them do it. It’ll add to the landslide numbers in our favor.
Headline correction: Future House Majority Leader…
And yet, I bet every symphony member voted for the Democrats and will again in November.
I’d like to know what this will be spent on, if not for salaries. At least make them tell us that.
Baby steps. That said, they should probably shut down the abortion chambers and other essential corporations with “benefits” that perform nearly a million excess deaths annually in America alone. #Wicked
Outrageous pork for the elite Libs in DC while people are losing their jobs! DemocRats are deadly enemies of the US. Pelosi is their Hitler.
DemoKKKRATS attempting to further their Socialist agenda on the backs of the Wu Flu Pandemic are filthy ant-American traitors. They all need to be shot or hung with piano wire.
I read somewhere that Pelosi included millions in the Coronavirus bill to enable a bunch more muzslimes to come into our country. If this is true, it definitely needs to be removed as well.
In addition to a clawback of the $25 Million there needs to be a suspension of all tax considerations until a complete review of the Kennedy Center’s status is reviewed and they submit an All New Application for 501 partxxx status.