[Dixielandjazz] Fw: C-M: Large cut proposed for US military music

[Margaret Squires]

Bob Ringwald posted about the U.S. Coastgard concert.  If our representatives 
have their way, those concerts may be a thing of the past.....

The following message was posted to another mailing list I belong to.

Margaret




In May, Representative Betty McCullom introduced an amendment to the
House version of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act that
would significantly and immediately reduce spending on military music
programs from $320 million to $200 million. This went back and forth
in the House and was eventually passed in early July. The Senate is
currently working on their version of the NDAA. When it is passed by
the Senate, the two bills will go into conference with input from the
office of the Secretary of Defense to be reconciled. If this amendment
makes it through, it will have an negative impact on all music in the
military. Since the numbers provided to Rep. McCullom were possibly
not the most accurate and her amendment is vague, it is feared that
the cuts in reality could well exceed 37.5%. They will take effect
almost immediately - Oct. 1 of this year.

The DOD budget projection for FY2012 is $553 billion. Cutting a mere
$120 million is a "savings" of...what exactly?

The American Bandmasters Association (ABA), the College Band Directors
National Association (CBDNA), and MENC are advocating that this
amendment not become part of the 2012 NDAA. The MENC link provides
further information:
http://advocacy.menc.org/profiles/blogs/news-itema ction-alert-us

If you are interested in contacting your Representative and Senator:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/ senators_cfm.cfm

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

As few as seven letters and phone calls can make a difference in the
passage of legislation.