NEW YORK, June 10 (Xinhua) -- Approximately two-thirds of the staff at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the largest public funder of the humanities in the United States, will lose their jobs when their "reduction in force" goes into effect on Tuesday, according to their union, the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3403.
"A major agency restructuring is underway without the appropriate planning needed to ensure the continuity of operations," the local said in a statement. "These drastic changes ... represent an existential threat to those institutions and individuals who rely on support from NEH to research, preserve, and interpret our shared heritage."
The NEH did not respond to a request for comment. Less than 60 employees are expected to remain. The agency has a 207 million U.S. dollars budget to fund humanities programs such as history, law, literature, philosophy, and linguistics.
In early April, NEH terminated more than 1,000 existing grants, including one for the National History Day competition and grants for state humanities councils in all 50 states. The agency has already quietly posted that roughly half of its funding opportunities will not be offered in the next fiscal year or will no longer be offered at all, reported USA Today about the development. ■
