By The Oregon Journalism Project

Oregon Humanities filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Thursday in U.S. District Court in Portland saying the Department of Government Efficiency improperly cut funding that Congress appropriated to the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The organization, a nonprofit formerly known as the Oregon Council on Humanities, was founded in 1971. It advocates for and distributes money to arts groups all over the state. Nearly half of its $2.46 million budget in 2024 came from the National Endowment for the Humanities—and therein lies the rub.

The lawsuit was filed by the Tonkin Torp firm on behalf of Oregon Humanities and the Federation of State Humanities Councils.

“From Mississippi to South Dakota, Maine to California, the Northern Mariana Islands to Idaho, and places in between, NEH funding flows to state and jurisdictional humanities councils who in turn support a multitude of local grass roots public humanities programs throughout the nation,” the lawsuit says.

“Indeed, here in Oregon, NEH funding helps fund humanities programming in every corner of the state — grants for rural libraries in communities such as Burns, Joseph, Blue River, Newport, and Forest Grove; funding for youth-led conversations about mental health in Medford; funding for storytelling projects led by Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland; the publication of a widely-distributed Oregon Humanities magazine featuring stories from all over the state …”

The lawsuit said the Trump administration and DOGE “have engaged in a concerted effort to disrupt and destroy the work of the NEH.”

“These efforts are unlawful, and plaintiffs bring this lawsuit to seek relief for the immediate harms these efforts are causing to the federation, its members, and those members’ many grant recipients.”

The NEH explained its new direction in an April 24 statement, saying in part, “In collaboration with the Administration, NEH has cancelled awards that are at variance with agency priorities, including but not limited to those on diversity, equity, and inclusion (or DEI) and environmental justice, as well as awards that may not inspire public confidence in the use of taxpayer funds.”

In 2024, Congress appropriated $207 million to the National Endowment for the Humanities. That organization parcels out its funding around the country to organizations such as Oregon Humanities.

The NEH parcels out grants on a five-year cycle. Now, the money for this and future years is in doubt.

That’s because on April 30, Oregon Humanities and peer organizations around the country received emails telling them their 2025 grants had been cancelled: “The guidance stated that all grant terminations were permanent and that there would be no appeal process.”

Oregon Humanities says in its lawsuit that Trump’s budget cutters lack the authority to make such cuts.

“The Constitution grants Congress — not the president — the power to create and prescribe the duties of federal agencies, and Congress maintains the exclusive power of the purse in directing how federal funds must be spent,” the lawsuit says. “The NEH may not refuse to spend funds that Congress has appropriated for state and jurisdictional humanities councils.”

In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs ask the court for an injunction against DOGE and for the court to order the administration to restore NEH funding and “to obligate and spend the full amount of funds that Congress has appropriated.”