Advocacy Alert – February, 26 2024

Speak Up for Museums During Museums Advocacy Day 2024

Hundreds of museum advocates are gathering in Washington, D.C. for Museums Advocacy Day 2024 on February 26-27. Together as a field, we have defeated several threats to eliminate federal agencies supporting museums in recent years, including as recently as November 2023, and have been instrumental in securing more than $3 billion in relief funds–but we must keep making our case to Congress. While Museums Advocacy Day is a unique and powerful opportunity to make the case for museums directly to Congress, you don’t have to be in Washington, D.C. to join the cause.

Legislators need to hear from you–the people they represent–about how their decisions affect museums and museum people.

Use our advocacy templates, tools, and resources to make your voice heard today!

Contact Congress: OMS Funding for Museums

Contact Congress: Charitable Giving Incentives

Contact Congress: House Ban on Museum Earmarks

Legislative Agenda

Museums play a key role in education, job creation, tourism, economic development, historic preservation, environmental conservation, and advancing scientific literacy and global competitiveness. They are essential community infrastructure and have strong public support: a 2017 national public opinion poll, Museums and Public Opinion, showed that 96% of voters would approve of lawmakers who acted to support museums and 96% want federal funding for museums to be maintained or increased. The museum community–which includes aquariums, art museums, children’s museums, culturally-specific museums, historic sites, history museums, maritime museums, military museums, natural history museums, planetariums, presidential libraries, public gardens, railway museums, science centers, and zoos–has worked together to develop this updated federal policy agenda, including detailed information and issue briefs.

Our key legislative asks for Museums Advocacy Day 2024 are:

IMLS – Office of Museum Services (OMS)

• Support at least $55.5 million in FY 2024 funding and at least $65.5 million in FY 2025 funding for the IMLS Office of Museum Services.
• Ask legislators to sign on to Appropriations letter supporting “robust funding” for OMS once it circulates.

Tax Policy

• Include a non-itemizer (universal) charitable deduction in any forthcoming tax package and co-sponsor the Charitable Act (S. 566/H.R. 3435) to renew and expand the deduction.

Earmarks (House of Representatives Only)

• Lift the House ban on museum earmarks, also known as Community Project Funding.

Advocate from Anywhere

» Now and throughout the year you can speak up for museums with our updated Advocate from Anywhere tools including updated Museum Facts and Data and the 2024 Advocate Materials.

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Stay tuned for further updates from AAM for timely opportunities to advocate this spring.

Your steadfast advocacy efforts on behalf of museums and museum professionals make a huge difference. We look forward to advocating together this year, including at Museums Advocacy Day 2024!

Visit http://www.aam-us.org/advocacy to access all of AAM’s advocacy resources.