The Oregon Humanities Council is suing Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency known as DOGE, urging a federal judge to block its cancellation of National Endowment for the Humanities grants to state and local groups.
The suit alleges that DOGE brought to a “screeching halt” the work of its council and other similar humanities councils in March and April when it gutted the national endowment “with no reasoned analysis.”
DOGE terminated all grants for 56 state and local humanities councils that were created by federal statutes and funded by Congress, states and local councils, the lawsuit says.
“We ask the Court to stop this imminent threat to our Nation‘s historic and critical support of the humanities by restoring funding appropriated by Congress,” the suit says.
In Oregon, the federal money helps fund programming in every part of the state, including grants for rural libraries in Burns, Joseph, Blue River, Newport and Forest Grove, as well as funding for youth-led mental health sessions in Medford, storytelling projects led by Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland and the publication of an Oregon Humanities magazine, according to the suit.
In fiscal 2024, Congress appropriated $207 million for the National Humanities Endowment, of which $65 million went to the councils across the country.
Oregon Humanities is a nonprofit created in 1971 to distribute the federal money to public humanities projects across the state. The national endowment is its largest funding source.
Joining Oregon Humanities in the suit is the Federation of State Humanities Councils, a nonprofit whose members included 54 of the 56 state and local councils. It advocates for the humanities councils and receives grants as well from the endowment.
Oregon Humanities, through an application, was approved for a standard operation grant of $2.5 million to run from Nov. 1, 2022, through Oct. 31, 2027, according to the suit. That covers about 50% of its budget each year.
To date, the national endowment has awarded and reimbursed $2,029,271 under the grant. Oregon Humanities asked for another $292,000 in reimbursements for expenses through March 31 that have not been processed, according to the suit. An additional $258,934 is available under the grant for fiscal 2025.
An application for a new grant to run from Nov. 1, 2025, to Oct. 31, 2030, was submitted but has not been processed by the National Humanities Endowment, the suit said.
The suit asks a federal judge to declare blocking and teminating the endowment’s grants as unlawful and seeks a court order to compel the government to provide the money that Congress has appropriated.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon in Portland.
— Maxine Bernstein covers federal court and criminal justice. Reach her at 503-221-8212, mbernstein@oregonian.com, follow her on X @maxoregonian, on Bluesky @maxbernstein.bsky.social or on LinkedIn.