Approximately two-thirds of the staff at the National Endowment for the Humanities will lose their jobs when their “reduction in force” goes into effect June 10, 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 agency’s employees were not part of the lawsuit that currently has other reduction in force efforts on hold.
The National Endowment for the Humanities did not respond to a request for comment.
Less than 60 employees are expected to remain. The agency has a $207 million 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.
Among the grants that the agency will no longer offer next year are awards specifically for faculty at Hispanic-serving institutions, tribal institutions, training for K-12 and higher education teachers and studies on endangered languages and the experiences of war.
The preserved grants include projects for the country’s 250th anniversary, including a statue garden of famous Americans.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NEH lays off about 100 employees, ends more grant programs, union says
