20 U.S.C. § 956 — National Endowment for the Humanities

(a) Establishment. The National Endowment for the Humanities^* is established within the Foundation.

(b) Chairperson.
(1) The Endowment is headed by a Chairperson appointed by the President with the Senate's advice and consent.
(2) The Chairperson serves 4 years and may be reappointed. This also applies to someone appointed to fill a vacancy. When the term ends, the Chairperson continues serving until a successor is appointed and qualified.

(c) Functions. With advice from the National Council on the Humanities, the Chairperson may enter into contracts, grants, loans, and other assistance arrangements to:
(1) Develop and encourage a national policy promoting progress and scholarship in the humanities.
(2) Start and support research and programs that strengthen United States research and teaching in the humanities by arranging support with people or groups. Endowment loans must follow terms and conditions approved by the Secretary of the Treasury.
(3) Start and support humanities training and workshops through arrangements with institutions or people. Fellowships to individuals may support study or research, for stated periods, at suitable nonprofit institutions chosen by the recipient.
(4) Start and support programs and research with substantial scholarly and cultural importance that reach or reflect the diversity and richness of American cultural heritage, including the culture of minority, inner-city, rural, or tribal communities.
(5) Promote international programs and exchanges.
(6) Promote exchange of information in the humanities.
(7) Work with groups to promote humanities education and public understanding and appreciation of the humanities.
(8) Support publication of scholarly humanities works.
(9) Ensure that program benefits are also available to citizens who otherwise could not receive them because of geographic or economic reasons.
(10) Promote programs and projects that give access to, and preserve, materials important to humanities research, education, and public understanding.
For publications under paragraph (8), the Chairperson may support them without following section 501 of title 44 only after consulting the congressional Joint Committee on Printing and sending the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources and the House Committee on Education and Labor a report justifying the exemption. When choosing exceptionally talented people and groups for assistance, the Chairperson must give particular consideration to scholars and educational and cultural institutions traditionally underrepresented.

(d) Coordination. As far as practicable, the Chairperson must coordinate Endowment programs with existing Federal programs, designated State^* humanities agencies, and programs of other public agencies or private groups. The Chairperson must develop Endowment programs while considering what other Federal agencies can contribute through existing programs.

(e) Workshop^* grant limit. A grant under subsection (c)(3) to a group^* conducting workshops that charge the general public admission or another fee may not exceed 30 percent of the workshops' total cost.

(f) State grants and plans.
(1) With advice from the National Council on the Humanities, the Chairperson may establish and run grants-in-aid in each State. The grants may pay no more than 50 percent of the cost of existing activities meeting subsection (c)'s standards and may develop humanities programs that provide adequate programs in every State.
(2)(A) If a State wants to designate or establish one State agency as the only agency administering its State plan, it must designate the humanities council existing when the agency is established. The State must match with State funds the greater of: 50 percent of the Federal assistance described in paragraph (4)'s first sentence as the minimum State grant, or 25 percent of all Federal assistance the State receives under this subsection for the fiscal year.
Before each fiscal year, the State must submit an application and a plan that the Chairperson finds does all of the following:
(i) Designates or provides for establishing the State agency as the only agency administering the State plan.
(ii) Provides that the State's chief executive appoints new members to the designated State humanities council as members' terms expire, until all council members have been appointed by that chief executive.
(iii) Provides the required State match described above.
(iv) Provides that State funds under this subsection will be spent only on programs approved by the State agency that carry out subsection (c) and bring the humanities to the public.
(v) Assures that the State funds are newly appropriated for this requirement.
(vi) Requires the State agency to make reports in the form and with the information the Chairperson requires, including progress toward the State plan's goals.
(vii)(I) Assures that, after reasonable notice, the State agency held public meetings allowing scholars, interested organizations, and the public to give views and recommendations about the plan; and (II) includes a summary of those recommendations and the agency's response.
(viii)(I) Describes scholars' and scholarly organizations' participation during the latest preceding year for which information is available in programs receiving assistance under this subsection; (II) describes, for that year, how available those programs are to all people and communities in the State; and (III) describes existing or developing assisted programs intended to broaden participation by those scholars and organizations or to address availability to those people and communities.
The Chairperson may not approve the application unless its plan meets this subsection.
(B) If the State's chief executive does not submit an application under subparagraph (A), the State's grant recipient must (i) establish a process ensuring that an appropriate State officer or agency appoints six members of its governing body, but never more than 25 percent of that body's members; and (ii) provide from any source an amount equal to the Federal assistance it receives under this subsection for the fiscal year.
(3) When a State receives assistance under paragraph (2)(B), an entity seeking assistance must apply when the Chairperson specifies and include a plan that:
(A) assures compliance with paragraph (2)(B); (B) limits the grant recipient's funds to programs carrying out subsection (c); (C) provides broad public representation in program membership; (D) provides nominations from various State groups and population segments, including people especially qualified through humanities achievement, scholarship, or creativity; (E) regularly rotates members and officers; (F) reports activities to the State chief executive and other appropriate officers and agencies; (G) ensures public access to activity information; (H) reports to the Chairperson in the required form, time, and detail, including progress toward the plan's goals; (I)(i) assures public meetings after reasonable notice for views and recommendations and (ii) summarizes them and the recipient's response; and (J)(i) describes recent scholar and scholarly-organization participation, (ii) describes recent availability to all State people and communities, and (iii) describes existing or developing programs to broaden that participation or availability.
The Chairperson may not approve an application unless its plan meets this subsection.
(4) For each fiscal year, every State and grant recipient with an approved plan must be allotted at least $200,000 from available funds. If appropriations cannot fully cover these minimum allotments, the available money must be divided equally among them. Any amount remaining after the minimum allotments is divided as follows: (A) 34 percent is available to the Chairperson for grants to States, regional groups, and applicants; (B) 44 percent is divided equally among States and grant recipients with approved plans; and (C) 22 percent is divided among them in proportion to the population of the plan's State—or, for a non-State recipient, the population of the State where it is located—compared with the population of all States.
(5)(A) Each State allotment is available to a State or recipient whose approved plan or application is in effect on the first day of the fiscal year to pay no more than 50 percent of a project^* or production^* described in paragraph (1). An amount allotted under paragraph (4) that exceeds $125,000 but is no more than 20 percent of that allotment may, at the Chairperson's discretion, pay up to 100 percent of programs that otherwise would not be available to that State's residents.
(B) Any amount allotted to a State under the first sentence of paragraph (4) for a fiscal year that is not obligated by the State agency or grant recipient before 60 days before the end of the fiscal year for which the sums are appropriated is available to the Chairperson for grants to regional groups.
(C) These funds may not replace non-Federal funds.
(D) “Regional group” means any multistate group, whether or not it represents neighboring States.
(E) For paragraph (4)(B), “State” and “grant recipient” include the States and only the special jurisdictions listed in section 952(g) with populations of at least 200,000 according to the latest decennial census.
(6) Amounts allotted or made available under paragraph (4) that are not granted during the fiscal year are available to the Endowment to carry out subsection (c).
(7) After reasonable notice and an opportunity for a hearing, if the Chairperson finds that (A) a group or recipient is not substantially complying with this subsection, (B) a State agency or recipient is not substantially complying with its approved State plan or application, or (C) funds were diverted from their allotted or paid purposes, the Chairperson must immediately notify the Treasury Secretary and the affected group, agency, or recipient that no further grants will be made until the default, noncompliance, or diversion is corrected. If compliance or correction is impossible, grants stop until the affected party repays or arranges repayment of improperly diverted or spent Federal funds.
(8) Except for paragraph (4)'s third sentence and paragraphs (5) and (6), the Chairperson may not grant under this subsection to more than one entity in a State.

(g) Performers and supporting personnel. A grant recipient must assure the Secretary of Labor that all professional performers and related or supporting professional personnel on projects or productions financed partly or wholly under this section will receive, without later deduction or rebate, at least the prevailing minimum compensation determined by the Secretary of Labor for similar work. The recipient must also assure that no such project or production will be performed under unsanitary, hazardous, or health- or safety-dangerous conditions. Following the State's safety and sanitation laws is prima facie evidence of compliance. The Secretary of Labor must set the standards, regulations, and procedures needed for this subsection.

(h) Contracts or grants to public and private nonprofit organizations.
(1) With Council advice, the Chairperson may establish and operate a program of contracts with, or grants to, public agencies and private nonprofit organizations to:
(A) help cultural organizations and institutions increase continuing support and the range of contributors; (B) improve administration and management, especially long-term financial planning; (C) increase audience participation in and appreciation of their programs; (D) encourage cooperation among organizations and institutions to better serve their communities; (E) encourage citizens to help plan community cultural development; and (F) for bicentennial programs, assess society's and government's relationship to the Republic's founding principles, focusing mainly on projects bringing public and private citizens together to find new ways to solve national problems in the Nation's third century.
(2)(A) A payment under this subsection for a program or project may not exceed 50 percent of its cost, unless subparagraph (B) applies. (B) With Council advice, the Chairperson may waive all or part of the matching-funds requirement, only for paragraph (1)(F), if highly meritorious proposals could not otherwise be supported by non-Federal sources or by Federal sources other than funds authorized by section 960(a)(3). The waiver may not exceed 15 percent of the amount appropriated and available to the Endowment for this subsection in a fiscal year.
(3) In this program, the Chairperson has the authority provided by subsection (c) and section 959.

(i) Interagency agreements. The Chairperson may enter reimbursable or nonreimbursable agreements with other Federal agencies to promote or assist their humanities-related activities and may use funds authorized for subsection (c) for those activities' costs.

(j) Prevailing construction wages. A grant recipient must assure the Secretary of Labor that laborers and mechanics employed by contractors or subcontractors on assisted construction projects receive wages at least equal to the prevailing local rates for similar construction, as determined by the Secretary under sections 3141–3144, 3146, and 3147 of title 40. For these labor standards, the Secretary of Labor has the authority and functions in Reorganization Plan Number 14 of 1950 and section 3145 of title 40.

(k) National humanities information system and reports. In continuing consultation with State and local agencies, relevant organizations, and relevant Federal agencies, the Chairperson must continue developing and implementing a practical national system to collect and publicly share information and data about the humanities, scholars, educational and cultural groups, and their audiences. The system must include national, regional, and State trends in cultural and financial conditions in humanities fields, audience participation, and humanities education. Using the system and a summary of data submitted with subsection (f) plans, the Chairperson must prepare a report on the state of the humanities in the Nation. The report must describe the availability of Endowment programs to emerging and culturally diverse scholars, cultural and educational organizations, and communities, and their participation in those programs. It must be sent to the President and Congress and provided to the States by October 1, 1992, and every 4 years afterward.

(l) Group eligibility. A group is eligible for financial assistance under this section only if:
(1) None of its net earnings benefits a private stockholder or stockholders or an individual or individuals; and
(2) Donations to it qualify as charitable contributions under section 170(c) of title 26.

(m) Annual awards. With advice from the National Council on the Humanities, the Chairperson may make these annual awards:
(1) The Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities Award to one person for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities. It may not exceed $10,000.
(2) The Charles Frankel Prize to honor people who made outstanding contributions to public understanding of the humanities. No more than 5 people may receive it each year, and each prize may not exceed $5,000. This section does not define “humanities,” “exceptional talent,” “highly meritorious,” or “prima facie evidence.”