[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

(FWD) NCC Washington Update, Vol 6, #30, September 8, 2000



NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 6, #30, September 8, 2000
by Bruce Craig <rbcraig3@juno.com> of  the National Coordinating
Committee for the Promotion of History

1.  Appropriation Update: Congress Returns to Finish Budget
2   Plans for Washington D.C. Reagan Memorial Voted Down; WW II Memorial
Proposal Criticized
3.  News Bits and Bytes: New GPO Websites Provide Access to Research
Information; Lynne Cheney Interview - Says Not Interested in Education
Secretary Position

1.  APPROPRIATION UPDATE: CONGRESS RETURNS TO FINISH BUDGET
On September 5 Congress returned to Washington from its month long
recess.  There are just over twenty days remaining in this Congressional
session to finish business for the year before the scheduled October 6
adjournment.  While the House of Representatives did pass all its
appropriations bills except the one that funds the District of Columbia,
the Senate has yet to act on five bills.  Thus far, President Clinton
has signed only two of the thirteen appropriation bills -  the Military
Construction bill and the Defense bill. Consequently, September is
likely to be a frenzied month of negotiations on the remaining FY 2001
spending bills.  Virtually every one of those bills has some remaining
outstanding controversy that will need to be resolved.  Nevertheless,
White House spokesman Joe Lockhart  recently stated: "There absolutely
is no reason in the world why we can't work out our spending priority
differences and we can't do it in a timely way."  In fact, in spite of
the contentious partisan atmosphere arising out of the pending
Presidential election, there are a number of areas where Democrats and
Republicans have or nearly have reached agreement.

One such appropriation bill of particular interest to the
historical/archival community is the Labor, Health and Human Services
and Education bill (H.R. 4577 and S. 2553) - legislation that includes
funding for education and library programs funded through the Institute
of Museum and Library Services.  It is the Senate version of this bill
that includes an amendment offered by Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) that
earmarks $50 million for the Secretary of Education "to award grants to
develop, implement and strengthen programs to teach American history
(not social studies) as a separate subject within school curricula."
(For related stories see NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 6 nos. 22, 23, and
26). It is known that House and Senate conferees met throughout the week
of July 24 and concluded their work just prior to the Congressional
recess. Nevertheless, a conference report has not yet been filed and the
appropriations staff is keeping tight-lipped about the contents of the
draft report. Through its inside sources, the NCC has learned that bill
is presently victim to legislative maneuvering - when the appropriations
committee will elect to release the report will in essence be "a
political decision." As soon as the report is released, news of that
event will appear in this newsletter.

Another appropriation bill of prime interest to the historical/archival
community is the Interior and Related Agencies bill (H.R. 4578).  On
June 16 the House passed, and on July 18 the Senate passed their
respective versions of an Interior appropriations bill.  That
legislation includes funding for the National Endowment for the
Humanities (NEH), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and the
National Park Service (NPS) including the Historic Preservation Fund.
House and Senate conferees are expected to meet next
week to begin to iron out the differences between their respective
bills.

In the Interior bill, a topic of potential controversy and disagreement
between the conferees focuses on the funding level for the NEA. Some
House GOP leaders are adamant that the NEA should not receive the
increase that was adopted in the Senate measure.  On the other hand,
some Senators are equally determined that there ought to be an increase.
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 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.

The third bill of special interest to the historical/archival community
is the Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government appropriation
bill (H.R. 4871; S. 2900 now wrapped into H.R. 4985).  Among other
agencies, this legislation provides funding for the National Archives
and Records Administration.  Before the Labor Day recess the House of
Representatives passed a $29.1 billion Treasury, Postal Service, and
General Government appropriation bill.  That legislation 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, but there are no funds set aside  for the
proposed Archives I $88 million renovation which is part of the
President's budget proposal.  The Senate version of the bill which was
reported out of its appropriations committee also authorizes funds for
the Archives I renovation.  The conference report (H. Rept. 106-796)
being considered by the House includes the $88 million for the
renovation but that report has yet to be voted up or down by the House.
The Senate is not expected to take any action until the House acts on
that report. It is expected that the House will take up the report
sometime next week.

2.  PLANS FOR WASHINGTON D.C. REAGAN MEMORIAL VOTED DOWN; WW II MEMORIAL
PROPOSAL CRITICIZED
The National Capital Memorial Commission voted unanimously to recommend
to Congress that it reject a bill (H.R. 4800) introduced by
Representative Don Young (R-AK) that would authorize the selection of a
site and a design for a memorial on the National Mall to former
President Ronald Reagan.  The Commission concluded that authorization of
such a memorial would violate the 1986 Commemorative Works Act, a law
designed to provide standards for structures built on federal lands in
the District of Columbia. Among other things that Act bans commemorating
an individual until after the 25th anniversary of the person's death.
Mr. Reagan, who is now 89 years old, already has a major government
building on Pennsylvania Avenue named for him and Washington National
Airport was renamed in his honor.

In a related memorial matter, the Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation slammed the controversial World War II memorial planned to
be constructed between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument.  In
a letter to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, the Council stated, that
construction of the memorial on the site suggested "has serious and
unresolved adverse effects on the preeminent historic character of the
National Mall."  The panel called the design (a sunken replica of the
existing Rainbow Pool surrounded by a plaza and 56 columns) incompatible
with its historic setting and a violation of the open feeling of the
Mall.

While the memorial has received the required approvals from three
federal commissions, the Advisory Council is the first federal agency to
officially criticize the memorial's proposed site and design. Secretary
Babbitt is required by law to consider the Advisory Council's concerns
before making his decision as to whether to approve the site and design.

3.   NEWS BITS AND BYTES:
Item #1: The Government Printing Office and the Department of Energy
have initiated two new services that expand public access to Federal
government scientific and technical research information.  The GrayLIT
Network (<www.osti.gov/graylit>) and Federal R&D Project Summaries
(<www.osti.gov/fedrnd>) provide users with the capability to find
information regardless of where it resides by searching for documents
across multiple databases of many Federal agencies in response to a
single query. GrayLIT provides a portal to more than 100,000 full-text
technical reports and Federal R&D enables researchers to access more
than 240,000 research summaries.  In addition, GPO Access
(<www.access.gpo.gov>), which has been in operation since 1994, provides
access to approximately 190,000 titles relating to all three branches of
government.

Item #2: The Washington Times (September 6, 2000) reports that former
Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Lynne Cheney, "is
not keen on a Cabinet position" and "would not be interested in being
named education secretary."  In an interview with the Times, the wife of
Vice-Presidential nominee Richard B. Cheney stated that she is "more
interested in math than multiculturalism" having molded herself into a
kinder, gentler personality whose main interest is curriculum for
kindergarten through 12th graders. Cheney is currently writing a book on
American education.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
NCC invites you to redistribute the NCC Washington Updates.  A complete
backfile of these reports is maintained by H-Net at
<http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~ncc>. To subscribe to the "NCC Washington
Update," send an e-mail message to listserv@h-net.msu.edu according to
the following model: SUBSCRIBE H-NCC firstname lastname, institution.

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>