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(FWD) NCC Washington Update, Vol 6, August 4, 2000



NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol 6, #26, August 4, 2000
by Bruce Craig <rbcraig3@juno.com> of  the National Coordinating
Committee for the Promotion of History

1.   Appropriations Update: No Interior Department Conference Until
After Labor Day
2.   Appropriations Update: $50 Million for History Education - "Its
looking Strong"
3.   Appropriations Update: House/Senate Conferees to act on FOIA
Provisions in Defense Authorization Bill
4.   Appropriations Update: Library of Congress - Conference Concluded
5.   Appropriations Update: Treasury/Postal (National Archives)
6.   News Bits and Bytes: Firstgov website; New Teacher Accreditation
Standards

NOTE TO READERS:
As of Friday, July 28, Congress is adjourned for the summer recess.  In
early September, Congress will return to work on unfinished business,
the most important (at lease in terms of the historical/archival
community) will
focus on various agency appropriations.

This unusually lengthy issue of the NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE includes the
most up-to-date information we could assemble relating to various
pending appropriations bills of interest to our community. During the
Congressional break, readers are encouraged to contact elected officials
and let them know of your views as they relate to the various
appropriations bills still pending. Letters, telephone calls, or e-MAIL
communications - especially relating to the $88 million National
Archives budget needs for Archives I renovations (news item #5) and
concerns relating to currently drafted FOIA provisions in the Defense
Authorizations Act (news item #3) - are particularly needed.

With the advent of the Internet, contacting your Congressional
representatives is especially easy. For the House of Representatives, go
to www.house.gov; for the senate, go to www.senate.gov; both websites
have links to members of Congress.  When you communicate by e-MAIL, be
sure to give your current mailing address - this is especially important
if you are a constituent of the individual you are writing. You can also
contact your Congressional representatives by calling the Capitol
switchboard (202) 224-3121 and ask for the member of Congress by name -
the operator will connect you to the proper office.  If you choose to
write, address your letter to: The Honorable___________,United States
Senate, Washington D.C. 20510 or The Honorable___________, United States
House of Representatives, Washington D.C. 20515.

1.    NO INTERIOR DEPARTMENT CONFERENCE UNTIL AFTER LABOR DAY
On June 16 the House passed, and on July 18 the Senate passed their
respective versions of an Interior and Related Agencies appropriations
bill (H.R. 4578; see also H. Report 106-646).  That legislation includes
funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Park Service (NPS)
including the Historic Preservation Fund.  Although days after the
Senate vote there were rumors that a conference would be held to begin
to iron out differences between the House and Senate passed measures
before the scheduled Congressional recess (July 28-September 4, 2000),
it did not happen and consequently, the conference will not take place
until after Labor Day.

There are some important differences between the House and Senate passed
measures that will need to be ironed out in conference.  House GOP
leaders appear adamant that the NEA should not receive the increase that
was adopted in the Senate passed measure.  There remains, on Capitol
hill, however, considerable optimism that the Senate proposed increases
for the NEH ($115.260 million for the House vs. $120.260 for the
Senate), NEA ($98 million for the House vs. $105 million for the Senate)
and the museum portion ($24.307 million in the House version vs. $24.907
million in the Senate version) of the Institute of Museum and Library
Services will prevail in conference. If the proposed increases for the
NEH survive the House-Senate conference, the NEH budget will become
$120.3 million. According to the Senate report, the $5 million in
additional funds allocated to the NEH would be divided as follows: $1.5
million for state humanities councils, $1 million to the public programs
division, $800,000 to regional humanities centers, $1 million for
research programs division, $500,000 for administrative support and
$200,000 for the challenge grant program.

2.   APPROPRIATIONS UPDATE: $50 MILLION FOR HISTORY EDUCATION  - "IT'S
LOOKING STRONG"
Recent NCC WASHINGTON UPDATES have focused on a Congressional Concurrent
Resolution (S. Con. Res. 129; H. Con. Res. 366) "Expressing the Sense of
Congress Regarding Value of Education in U.S. History" which decried the
sad state of American history education in the nation's schools (see NCC
WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 6, #22, June 30, 2000).  As a follow-up to the
resolution, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) offered an amendment (no. 3731)
to the FY 2001 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education
appropriation bill (H.R. 4577/ S.2553; see also H. Report 106-645; S.
Report 106-293) to provide $50 million to the Secretary of Education to
award grants to states "to develop, implement, and strengthen programs
that teach American history (not social studies) as a separate subject
within school curricula."  That amendment passed by 98 to 0 margin (see
NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 6, #23, July 12, 2000).

On July 19 the NCC learned that conferees had been appointed and that a
preliminary meeting was to be held that evening to "informally address"
some of the issues to be resolved in conference.  In case the conferees
were to address Senator Byrd's amendment that evening, a letter in
support of the $50 million earmark for historical programs signed by the
executive directors of the American Historical Association, the National
Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History and the Organization
of American Historians and was quickly dispatched to House and Senate
conferees requesting that they retain Senator Byrd's Senate passed
amendment in the conference version of the appropriations bill.

Conferees met throughout the week of July 24 and concluded their work
prior to the Congressional recess.  While the conferees have all but
finished with the bill (a few problematic riders and amendments remain
unresolved at this
writing) a Conference report has not yet been filed and appropriations
staff have not been authorized to announce the contents of that report.
Nevertheless, when questioned about the amendment, informed sources on
Capitol hill told us, "well, it's looking strong." As soon as the
Conference report is available, news will be posted in this newsletter
about the $50 million history earmark.

3.    APPROPRIATIONS UPDATE:  HOUSE/SENATE CONFEREES TO ACT ON FOIA
LIMITATIONS IN DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT
When Congress recessed the House and Senate had both passed their
respective versions of the Defense Authorization Act for FY 2001.  The
Senate version (S. 2549) contains several provisions impacting current
Freedom of Information law and policy. Of primary concern is an
exemption from the Freedom of Information Act for operational files of
the Defense Intelligence Agency.  As currently worded, Section 1045 of
the Senate bill would create a new exemption for "operational files" of
the Defense Intelligence Agency. The release of "operational files" on
Guatemala, for example, have proven indispensable to the work of the
Guatemalan Human Rights Commission and the new exemption could prevent
any such releases in the future.

Another provision in the Senate bill (Section 1044) seeks to create a
new expansive FOIA exemption for unclassified information provided by a
foreign government. The exemption, requested by the Pentagon, could
exclude from public access a wide range of valuable information.
Finally, in Section 1035 of the House passed version of this
appropriation bill (H.R. 4205) legislators have imposed a $30 million
cap on declassification spending - a serious cut from the current $51
million cap for FY 2000.  This dollar figure can be contrasted to over
$5 billion that is spent government wide for classification of
documents.

Your action is needed to let the House and Senate conferees know of your
opposition to these proposed provisions. Please call, e-MAIL, or write
the key conferees in the House and Senate and let them know of your
opposition
to these provisions and your desire to see the $30 million cap on
declassification removed from the legislation.  Comments from
constituents carry particular weight.  On the Senate side, please
contact John Warner (R-VA/Chair) at (202) 224-2023 or write,
<senator@warner.senate.gov> and for Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), contact
his office at (202) 224-6221 or <senator@levin.gov>.  On the House side,
contact Representative Floyd Spence (R-SC) at (202) 225-2452 or
<www.house.gov/spence> and Representative Ike Skelton (D-MO) at (202)
225-2876 or <ike.skelton@mail.house.gov>.

4. APPROPRIATIONS UPDATE: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS - CONFERENCE CONCLUDED
The Legislative Branch appropriations bill (H.R. 4516 and S. 2603; see
also H. Report 106-635 and S. Report 106-293) includes funding for the
Library of Congress, the Government Printing Office, the Superintendent
of Documents, and the Federal Depository Library Program.  For the
Library of Congress, the House passed bill - pegged at $397.713 million
(net) - left underfunded almost all budget lines; especially hard hit
was the Copyright Office. The Senate version would have netted the
Library $399.006 million - better than the House version, but still
important Library functions would be underfunded.

Conference work on the House and Senate bills has now been concluded,
however, the conferees' report has not been filed or formally adopted by
either house.  If adopted by the full House and Senate, the Library's
total appropriation will be $412.321 million - well above the original
House and Senate recommendations.  Of singular importance to the
historical/archival community is the Digital Futures Project which was
approved for $7.890 million - the House recommended level plus an
additional $300,000 for "technology" that was recommended in the Senate
version.  Perhaps most important, no RIFs (as originally envisioned in
the House bill) will occur in the Copyright office.

5.  APPROPRIATIONS UPDATE: TREASURY/POSTAL (NATIONAL ARCHIVES)
As reported in the last NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 6, # 25, July 27,
2000), Congress will take final action on legislation for FY 2001 for
the National Archives and Records Administration after its August
recess. Before leaving
town, the House of Representatives passed a $29.1 billion Treasury,
Postal Service, and General Government appropriation bill that provides
sufficient funding to cover all the National Archives fixed costs; in
addition there is funding to transfer President Clinton's papers to the
Clinton Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, money to accelerate the
processing of veterans records, and some start up monies for the
electronic records project.

On the Senate side, the Senate Appropriations Treasury and General
Government Subcommittee has marked up its version of the National
Archives and NHPRC proposed budget which includes full funding of the
President's request - $209.392 million for National Archives
"operations" and base level funding of $4.950 million for "repairs and
restoration."  While the Senate subcommittee did not provide any funds
for the Archives I renovation proposed in the President's budget, the
subcommittee did provide "forward funding" of $88 million, thus
allocating funds for the renovation in FY 2002.  Because Representatives
Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) and Steny Hoyer (D-MD) - two key conferees on the House
side - have made their support for funding the Archives I renovation
widely known, sources inside the Archives are hopeful that the resulting
bill sent to the President will include funding for the renovation in
the FY 2001 appropriation bill.

It is in the interest of the historical community to see the "forward
funding" of $88 million provided for the Archives I renovation currently
scheduled for FY 2002 be added to the FY 2001 appropriation bill during
the House/Senate conference.  The full Senate will act on the bill after
the August recess and a conference is expected to be held shortly
thereafter. Calls to Senators and Representatives recommending they
support the higher numbers contained in the Senate bill (including the
$88 million needed for the Archives I restoration) are needed.  Should
Senate funding prevail in conference, four major areas of the NARA
Strategic Plan could be facilitated: Improvement of records management
in the Federal government; the Archives could begin to meet special
challenges posed by electronic records; there would be expanded public
access to records; and the Senate version of the budget would help meet
storage and preservation needs of a growing body of records.

4.   NEWS BITS AND BYTES
Item #1: On August 2, representatives of various non-profit groups met
with Office of Management and Budget staff to discuss the proposed
"Firstgov" website. The new website is to "promote access to government
information organized not by agency, but by the type of service
information that people may be seeking."  Comments made on behalf of the
historical community focused on the desire to see Firstgov serve as a
vehicle for facilitating electronic requests for information and as a
means for filing electronic FOIA requests. A mock-up of the portal may
be viewed at <http://firstgov.gov>.

Item #2: The Chronicle of Higher Education (July 21 2000, p. A-12)
reports that the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education
has released new standards that require colleges to account for their
graduates' performance as schoolteachers.  The standards will be
required of all teacher-training programs seeking initial or renewed
accreditation beginning in the fall of 2001. The new standards may be
viewed online at:
http://www.ncate.org/2000/2000stds.pdf (Note: the file must be viewed
with an Adobe Acrobat reader).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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