Smithsonian's taxpayer funds face chopping block as GOP demands accountability for 'woke' history
House Republicans are threatening the Smithsonian's federal funding amid GOP outrage over the museum system's presentation of American history."The Smithsonian is accountable to the taxpayers. So defunding them in certain...
By Fox News · Fox News
House Republicans are threatening the Smithsonian's federal funding amid GOP outrage over the museum system's presentation of American history. "The Smithsonian is accountable to the taxpayers. So defunding them in certain ways, or tying their funds to requirements, I think is probably the best way to ensure that we bring the Smithsonian back to its required mandate," Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., told Fox News Digital. "And that is to tell the truth about the American story, and to tell about the exceptionalism of this country and its people." Congress allocates roughly $1 billion in taxpayer dollars to the Smithsonian Institution every year, which oversees 21 museums and the National Zoo. It also receives private funding. But Republicans have heaped scrutiny in recent weeks on the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, accusing its curators of long painting an overly critical and "woke" picture of the country's past while ignoring its triumphs. TRUMP V. SMITHSONIAN: A TIMELINE OF HOW THE WHITE HOUSE FIGHT OVER 'WOKE' HISTORY UNFOLDED Clyde, who is on the House Appropriations Committee — which is one of two panels on Capitol Hill tasked with mapping out how Congress spends part of the yearly budget — suggested that using the legislative branch's power of the purse could compel museum curators to change that. "We can tie funding to specific requirements, and I think that might be the most effective way to go — saying that... 'You have to highlight the exceptionalism. You have highlighted the good things that [the Founding Fathers have] done. You know, there's no perfect country because there's not a perfect person. But we are the best there is on the planet Earth," Clyde said. Another House Appropriations Committee member, Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., told Fox News Digital, "The Smithsonian’s role is to teach historic facts, not to put our country under a political kaleidoscope of woke ideology." WATCH: SMITHSONIAN DIRECTOR ADMITS SHE SEES HISTORY AS ‘TOOL’ OF ‘S…