Amendment in the nature of a substitute made certain changes in the grant-making procedures of the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) to ensure greater accountability and to allocate a greater share of NEA funds to states. It specified that obscenity was without artistic merit and could not be funded by the NEA, but left the final determination of what consituted obscenity to the courts. It specified that in issuing grants, the NEA had to take into consideration "general standards of decency and respect for the diverse beliefs and values of the American public.".