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

(FWD) NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 6, #40, November 17, 2000



(Apologies for formatting difficulties; I'm not working in my native
enironment/PC.--Holly Hodges)
_________________________________
NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 6, #40, November 17, 2000
by Bruce Craig <rbcraig3@juno.com> of  the National Coordinating Committee
for the Promotion of History
*****************

1.   Congress Meets in Lame-Duck Session
2.   The Faces of the 107th Congress
3.   Appropriation Update: House Pulls Anti-leak Provision From Intelligence
Bill
4.   Public Citizen Files Petition with National A rchives
5.   News Bits and Bytes: NEH Summer Institutes; FRUS Korea volume released

1.   CONGRESS MEETS IN LAME-DUCK SESSION
Congress returned to Washington D.C. on November 14 to begin a rare lame-duck
session to address the remaining business of the 106th Congress including
several outstanding appropriation bills. Before the election there was the
hope that after the election there would probably be a less politically
charged atmosphere, thus enabling Congress to finish action on the remaining
outstanding appropriation measures.  However, given the
partisan battling over disputed Florida votes in the presidential election,
this no longer seems likely.  If George W. Bush wins the White House,
Republicans are expected to curb spending on Clinton's priorities and block
his other initiatives outstanding in the budget bills and thus create
gridlock at least through inauguration day. If, however, Vice-President Gore
is declared the winner, the post-election congressional session may provide a
glimpse of how the next Congress will operate in a political atmosphere were
the House and Senate are nearly evenly split. The decision relating to who
ultimately emerges the winner in the election recount will have a significant
bearing on how Congress works out its remaining partisan differences.

Recognizing that it may take many weeks for the two sides to reconcile their
positions, Congress and the White House agreed to delay action on spending
bill negotiations for three weeks - until after the Thanksgiving holiday; yet
another Continuing Resolution funding government activities through December
5 has been approved.

Word on Capitol Hill is that some agencies that have yet to have their
appropriations bills enacted have been asked by the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) and Congress to give staff an idea of the impact of two
possible scenarios: First, a Continuing Resolution lasting through
inauguration day and a second, an even more scary request - to assess the
impact of a year-long Continuing Resolution. The former scenario would
simply postpone action on the budget and let the 107th Congress deal with the
testy issues; the latter would keep agency budgets at FY-2000 levels which
would (because of mandated pay increases and other personnel related costs)
create disastrous across the board cuts for agencies.

It is hoped that during the lame-duck session, Congress will address the huge
$113 billion Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education bill (L,H&HS&E)
which for weeks has been bogged down over disagreements on
spending priorities.  Reportedly, before the election, a deal had been cut on
certain aspects of the $43 billion Department of Education portion of the
L,H&HS&E bill.  Under the compromise, federal education spending would
increase 16 percent with the GOP agreeing to Clinton's demands for increases
in Pell grants, money for after-school programs, $1.7 billion for new teacher
hiring, and a $1.3 billion earmark for school repair funds.  Reportedly, the
bill also contains a provision for $50 million to support history education.
While the Congress and White House have seemingly reached agreement over the
President's education priorities it is not inconceivable to think that as
long as disputes remain over the workplace ergonomics issue (part of the
Labor portion of the bill) that Congress may opt to revisit the Education
Department appropriation once the presidential contest is resolved.

During the lame-duck session, Congress will also have to complete action on
the $33 billion Legislative Branch appropriation (H.R. 4516 - which includes
funding for the Library of Congress and the Government Printing Office) and
the Treasury Department (H.R. 4871- which includes the annual appropriation
for the National Archives and Records Administration).  Both of these
measures were vetoed by President Clinton because Congress had not acted on
the L,H&HS&E bill before advancing the Legislative Branch appropriation bill
(In his veto message Clinton stated: "I cannot in good conscience sign a bill
that funds the operation of Congress and the White House before funding our
classrooms, fixing our schools and protecting our workers.") Optimistic Hill
insiders hope that these two vetoed appropriations bills will be resubmitted
by Congress to the President for signature without amendment.

2.  THE FACES OF THE 107th CONGRESS
The freshmen class of the 107th Congress is an interesting mix of
individuals.  There are as many as 43 new House members - 29 Republicans and
14 Democrats (the numbers may change when two contests, one in New Jersey and
the other Florida, are decided) - who will be sworn-in come January.
Statistically, the quintessential new House member is a middle-aged white
man with a decade or more of experience in state government and is in
possession of a Masters degree. Among those in the House freshman class is a
Japanese-American imprisoned as a child in an internment camp, a former spy,
a quadriplegic, and the former head football coach of the Nebraska
Cornhuskers (Tom Osborne R-Missouri) - the only new member to possess a
doctorate degree.

On the Senate side, the winners are a more diverse group of conservatives,
liberals, and moderates.  A fairly good number of the new senators (both
Republican and Democrats) won their seats by spending their own money.  As a
consequence, one political strategist commented that the Senate is "becoming
a House of Lords" making any hope for campaign financing reform more unlikely.

Sometime in December, the Republican leadership will begin to interview
various GOP members wanting to be chairmen of various committees. Leadership
of several committees is up for grabs because of the GOP's 1995 decision to
impose a six-year limit on all committee chairs.  While virtually no changes
are expected in the Senate, there may be a significant overhaul in the House
of Representatives.  Five current chairman are retiring and several other
House members are hoping to take advantage of their seniority to slide into
those powerful chairmanships. Resources Committee chairman Don Young, for
example, is in line to take over the Transportation Committee thus leaving
the Resources Committee position for Utah's James V. Hansen. In the House's
Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government appropriation subcommittee,
Representative Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) is not expected to move. On the Senate side,
however, should Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO) be tapped by George W. Bush
(assuming he wins the election) to become Secretary of the Interior, this
would create a vacancy in the Treasury and General Government subcommittee
(this committee oversees the budget of the National Archives). The House
Government Reform Committee that oversees the operations of the National
Archives may also see changes: Representative Steve Horn (R-CA) has reached
his mandated term limitation as chairman of the Government Management,
Information and Technology subcommittee and must be rotated off as
subcommittee chairman - whether he retains oversight control over the
National Archives in whatever new position he assumes is a matter for
speculation. No change in Senator Fred Thompson's (R-TN) status as Chairman
of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee is expected.

For the committees that have oversight over the Library of Congress and
Superintendent of Documents, House Administration Committee chairman Bill
Thomas (R-CA) is expected to make a play for the powerful chairmanship of
the House Ways and Means Committee. Should he leave, John Boehner (R-OH)
would technically be next in line for the chairmanship; his interest in the
position is not presently known. No major changes are expected in the Senate
legislative branch oversight committee.

3.   APPROPRIATION UPDATE: HOUSE PULLS ANTI-LEAK PROVISION FROM INTELLIGENCE
BILL
On November 13, the House of Representatives removed the controversial "leak
statute" provision (Section 304)  in the Intelligence Authorization Act for
FY 2001 (H.R. 4392) that President Clinton vetoed on November 4.  The
President characterized the measure as "over broad" and stated that its
enactment would "chill legitimate activities that are at the heart of a
democracy."   The new House bill will be returned to the President for his
signature after the Senate signs off of it.

The vetoed Intelligence Authorization Act also included The Public Interest
Declassification Act (PIDA - S. 1801) which creates a nine-member "Public
Interest Declassification Board" whose charge would be to promote openness,
to support Congress in its oversight of declassification, and to make
recommendations to the President on classification and declassification
policy, practices and procedures. This provision is part of the new
legislation to be advanced to the President for action.

4.   PUBLIC CITIZEN FILES PETITION WITH NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Public Citizen has filed a petition with the National Archives and Records
Administration challenging the Archivist's implementation of General Records
Schedule 20 (GRS 20) and requesting that NARA's rules on electronic records
be amended to prevent further creation of a gap in historical records being
preserved by federal agencies.

The petition claims that agencies have not taken steps to preserve the
complete contents of records created in electronic form.  Filing of the
petition coincides with the October 31, 2000 deadline for agencies to submit
their plans for implementing the Government Paperwork Elimination Act which
requires that agencies be  prepared to conduct their transactions with the
public entirely through electronic means by 2003.  Public Citizen hopes that
researchers, historians, research organizations, and technology vendors will
submit letters or comments supporting the petition.  An HTML version of the
petition may be found at:
http://www.citizen.org/litigation/briefs/narapetframe.htm

5.   NEWS BITS AND BYTES
Item #1 - NEH Summer Institutes:  The National Endowment for the Humanities
will offer 30 summer institutes and seminars for precollegiate and
collegiate educators this summer.  For detailed information, tap into
http://www.neh.gov/teaching/seminars1.html
A list of the 24 offerings targeted to college and university professors is
posted at: http://www.neh.gov/teaching/seminars2.html
The deadline for both summer programs is March 1, 2001.

Item #2 - FRUS Volume Released:  On October 30, the Office of the Historian,
Department of State released a new volume in the Foreign Relations series:
Foreign Relations, 1964-1968, Volume XXIX, Part 1, Korea (ISBN
0-16-050006-0; $60). The volume documents bilateral relations between South
Korea and the United States, the Pueblo incident, and Japanese and Korean
efforts to enter into a new era of mutual cooperation. A summary of the
volume is available.  For more information contact David S. Patterson at
(202) 663-1127 or tap into the history office's web page at
www.state.gov/www/about_state/history/index.html

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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>