A Debate on Federal Funding of the Arts: Pro The Honorable Claudine Schneider, a Republican, United States Representative from Rhode Island, argues in favor of the National Endowment for the Arts(NEA) program. The NEA is controversial because of the artists it chooses to fund. While others feel that it needs to end, Schneider states how it has helped society. Some want the NEA to stop because they believe that some of the art is too graphic and that the taxpayers money, which helps fund the NEA, should go to other things like welfare or the deficit. Schneider argues that art is a form of speech which is protected by the First Amendment. Schneider