madam chairman , i am pleased that the amendment offered by my esteemed colleagues ms. slaughter , mr. shays , mr. dicks , mr. leach , and mr. price , passed today by a voice vote . 
the amendment offered on behalf of the arts caucus , will increase funding for the national endowment for the arts and the national endowment for the humanities by $ 10 million and $ 5 million respectively . 
i am a strong supporter of the national endowments for the arts and humanities , and i enjoy a strong working relationship with south dakota 's arts community . 
as a member of the arts caucus , i am proud to support our amendment , which represents an important step towards providing these agencies with the funding they need to continue providing critical support for literary , design , performing arts , and cultural projects in south dakota and across the country . 
another agency that receives funding under this bill is the u.s. forest service , which has the vital responsibility to fight fires on our public lands . 
i recognize the need for wildland fire protection and i strongly believe that congress must provide federal land management agencies with the resources they need to protect our public resources from fire , as well as the lives and property of those who live in and near national forests . 
it was for this reason that i voted in favor of the amendment offered by my colleague , mr. beauprez xz4000200 of colorado , to increase funding for wildland fire protection . 
unfortunately , i strongly disagree with the source of funding that mr. beauprez chose to utilize , the national endowment for the arts , in order to fund this wildland fire prevention increase . 
this amendment was soundly defeated on the house floor . 
i believe this was a function of the offset that the amendment sought to use , and not a lack of support in the house for forest fire prevention . 
it also is an indication that we must look for other ways to increase funding for wildland fire prevention . 
i offer to work with my colleagues in the house of representatives in the coming years to identify ways to fund increased wildland fire funding without raiding the important funds of the nea to accomplish that goal . 
