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Re: NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 7, #32, August 2, 2001--Trying again!



I'll be glad to get back home where my email works normal!  HH


In a message dated Thu, 2 Aug 2001 11:15:58 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Bruce Craig <rbcraig3@juno.com> writes:

> NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 7, #32, August 2, 2001
> by Bruce Craig <rbcraig3@juno.com> of the National Coordinating Committee
> for the Promotion of History
> *****************
>
> 1.   More on Senate Action on Archives Budget
> 2.   Legislation Introduced: Muscle Shoals NHA; House Resolution on
> Native Americans Role in American History
> 3.   NCC Files FOIA Appeal for Release of Reagan Document
> 4.   Teaching American History Grants to be Reviewed this Month
> 5.   Disputed Indonesia FRUS Volume Posted on Website
> 6.   News Bits and Bytes: Professor Files Suit; Ten Commandments OK to
> Display as "Historical Document"; Wilson Center Fellowships
>
> 1.  MORE ON SENATE ACTION ON ARCHIVES BUDGET
> As reported in last week's NCC UPDATE (NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 7,
> #31, July 27, 2001) on July 26, 2001, the Senate Committee on
> Appropriations passed the FY 2002 funding bill for the National Archives
> including the National Historical Publications and Records Commission
> (NHPRC).  We now have a more complete picture of the various line item
> numbers in the Senate passed version of the Postal Service and General
> Government Appropriations Act (H.R. 2590).
>
> The Appropriations Committee recommended  the National Archives be funded
> at $285.214 million - some $13.6 million  higher than the House figure
> (see NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 7, #30, July 20, 2001).  The Senate
> Committee approved an operational budget line of $244.247 million - the
> full amount requested in the President's budget.  The Senate level would
> provide sufficient monies for the electronic records initiative, complete
> the staffing of the Clinton Presidential Library and accelerate the
> processing of the Clinton Administration records. In addition, the Senate
> recommendation would expand electronic access to NARA services thus
> enabling the agency to better meet the requirements of the Government
> Paperwork Reduction Act.
>
> The "Repairs and Restoration" (R&R) budget line is higher than the
> President's request level ($10,643,000) that was approved by the House
> last week.  Pegged at $41.143 million, the Senate R&R line includes funds
> to renovate the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the
> Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum in Abilene, Kansas. In an
> addition, there is some $30.5 million for the construction of the
> Southeast Regional Archives in Morrow (near Atlanta), Georgia; the House
> version of the bill only provides $14 million for this undertaking.
>
> There is good news and bad news for the NHPRC. The bad news is that the
> Senate recommended only $6.436 million for NHPRC grants.  This is the
> same as the FY 2001 funding level but less than the FY 2002  House
> recommendation of $10 million.  The good news is that, unlike the House
> figure that includes two sizable "earmarked grants" ($1 million for the
> John Adams Collection at the Boston Public Library and $1.7 million for
> planning assistance for the Oklahoma State Centennial scheduled to take
> place in 2007), the Senate Committee passed a clean bill with no special
> earmarks for directed grants.
>
> The full Senate is not expected to act on the Committee's recommendations
> after the August Congressional recess.  After passage, a conference
> committee will be convened to reconcile differences between the House and
> Senate passed bills.
>
> 2.  LEGISLATION INTRODUCED: MUSCLE SHOALS NHA; HOUSE RESOLUTION ON NATIVE
> AMERICANS ROLE IN AMERICAN HISTORY
> Muscle Shoals NHA:
> On July 25, 2001, Rep. Robert E. Cramer (D-AL) introduced legislation
> (H.R. 2628) to direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a
> suitability/feasibility study that would lead to the establishment of
> the Muscle Shoals Heritage Area in Alabama. According to the legislation,
> in a four county area in Alabama, there are over ten towns and five
> cities that represent an assemblage of natural, historic, and cultural
> resources that together represent distinctive aspects of American
> heritage worthy of recognition and conservation. The study bill has been
> referred to the House Committee on Resources.
>
> House Resolution on Native Americans Role in American History:
> On July 12, 2001, Rep. Joe Bacca (D-CA) introduced House Resolution 190,
> expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that schools should
> educate children about and organize community service projects related to
> the role of Native Americans in American history and culture.  The
> legislation also suggests that there should be a paid holiday in honor of
> Native Americans for all Federal, State, and local government employees.
> The legislation recognizes the need to "further the cause of justice by
> educating and sensitizing" people about Native Americans and seeks to
> "make amends for the unspeakable harm it has done to a proud and noble
> people by recognizing and honoring Native Americans." The bill was
> referred to the House Education and the Workforce Committee.
>
> 3. NCC FILES FOIA APPEAL FOR RELEASE OF REAGAN DOCUMENT
> The NCC has filed a Freedom of Information (FOIA) appeal with the
> National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for the records
> schedule portion of a 29-page National Archives transmittal document to
> the White House.  The document contains descriptive information relating
> to some 68,000 pages of policy advising documents that is subject to the
> Presidential Records Act and is scheduled for release from the Reagan
> Presidential Library.
>
> As reported in this publication earlier in the year, (see NCC WASHINGTON
> UPDATE, Vol. 7, #23, June 8, 2001), in early June, the White House
> counsel's office asked the National Archives to delay the release of
> thousands of pages of historical records relating to the presidency of
> Ronald Reagan. The collection is believed to include confidential memos,
> letters, and briefing papers of great historical significance.
>
> The documents are the first scheduled to be released under the
> Presidential Records Act of 1978. That law provides for a twelve-year
> moratorium for the release of certain presidential records including
> "confidential communications requesting or submitting advice between the
> President and his advisers, or between such advisors."   In order to have
> sufficient time to review the documents, the White House counsel's office
> requested a "delay" until the end of August to give government lawyers
> time to look at the files before researchers do and, as provided by
> Executive Order, withhold any documents the White House deems
> appropriate.  The White House is expected to complete its review by the
> August deadline. Exactly what documents (if any) will be released is
> unknown at this time.
>
> In June, historian Hugh Graham filed a FOIA request for the NARA
> transmittal document and records schedule; his request was denied. On
> June 23, 2001, the NCC also filed a FOIA request, but unlike Graham, the
> NCC requested only the records schedule portion of the document and that
> "any and all discussion language between NARA and the White House be
> redacted."  The NCC and its legal advisors believe the records schedule
> portion of the transmittal letter is a public document and is not
> protected by the deliberative process privilege (see 5 USC 552 Section
> (b)(5).   Nevertheless, on July 23, 2001, the NCC received a letter from
> NARA denying the organization the 28-page descriptive document.  The
> letter states, "We have determined that this notice, in its entirety, is
> appropriate for withholding...and is protected by the deliberative
> process privilege. On August 1, 2002, NCC filed an appeal with NARA.
>
> Should the document not be released as a result of the FOIA appeal, the
> NCC will consider other options including filing suit in federal court
> which in all likelihood would result in judicial review of NARA's
> decision.
>
> 4. TEACHING AMERICAN HISTORY GRANTS TO BE REVIEWED THIS MONTH
> Officials inside the Department of Education (DOE) report that the
> Teaching American History grant program received over 330 applications.
> Local Education Agencies (LEAs) in all fifty states submitted
> applications for a portion of the $50 million available this fiscal year
> for the teaching history initiative.
>
> During the week of August 13, some ninety reviewers will meet in
> Washington D.C. to assess the applications and make recommendations to
> the Secretary of Education for funding an estimated 120 programs. DOE
> officials estimate that, depending on the size of the grants, about one
> out of three applicants will receive funding.  Successful applicants will
> be notified by the end of September.  The Teaching American History grant
> program is expected to be continued next year, but with double the funds
> - $100 million - available for the initiative in FY 2002.
>
> 5. DISPUTED INDONESIA FRUS VOLUME POSTED ON WEBSITE
> George Washington University's National Security Archive (NSA) has posted
> on the world wide web one of two State Department documentary histories
> that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency reportedly objects to
> releasing.  The two disputed State Department FRUS volumes cover
> Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines in the years 1964-68 and
> Greece-Turkey-Cyprus in the same period.  According to State Department
> records, the documents included in the two volumes were officially
> declassified in 1998 and 1999.  According to a NSA press release, the
> CIA, as well as action officers at the State Department, have prevented
> the official release of both volumes, which have already printed and
> bound by the Government Printing Office.  The National Security Archive
> obtained the Indonesia volume when the GPO, apparently by mistake,
> shipped copies to various GPO bookstores; the Greece volume is still
> locked up in GPO warehouses.  The Indonesia volume is posted at:
> <http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv>.
>
> The volume includes significant new documentation on the Indonesian
> Army's campaign against the Indonesia Communist Party (PKI) in 1965-66,
> which brought to power the dictator Suharto. The volume also describes
> another highly controversial issue - that of U.S. involvement if not
> complicity in the killings of at least 100,000 Communists in Indonesia in
> the mid-1960s.
>
> The CIA's intervention in the State Department publication is only the
> latest in a series of such controversies, dating back to 1990 when the
> CIA censored a State volume on Iran in the early 1950s to leave out any
> reference to the CIA-backed coup that overthrew Mossadegh in 1953.  The
> chair of the State Department historical advisory committee resigned in
> protest, producing an outcry among academics and journalists.  Congress
> then passed a law in 1991 requiring the State Department volumes to
> include covert operations as well as overt diplomacy, so as to provide an
> accurate historical picture of U.S. foreign policy, 30 years after the
> events.
>
> 6. BITS AND BYTES:
> Item #1 - Professor Files Suit:  The Chronicle of Higher Education (July
> 27, 2001) reports that a history professor at North Hennepin Community
> College in Minnesota has filed a federal lawsuit charging that his
> free-speech rights were violated when, in 1996, a school administrator
> removed a poster of General George Armstrong Custer from the professor's
> office door because it was "offensive." The poster was a take-off of the
> "Uncle Sam Wants You" posters inviting the public to in list in the
> cavalry "to help put down the militant Sioux." Several more recent
> reprimands from administrators led Willard to file suit.  Mr. Willard is
> being assisted in his legal battle by the Center for Individual Rights, a
> nonprofit civil liberty group.
>
> Item #2 - Ten Commandments OK to Display as Historical Document:  The
> Associated Press reports that on July 25, 2001, by a vote of 94 to 18,
> the North Carolina State legislature approved legislation allowing public
> schools in that state to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms. The
> legislation has already passed the state Senate and the governor is
> expected to sign the bill. Supporters say the bill will allow schools to
> display any "historical document" that has influenced the nation's
> government and legal system; the state chapter of the American Civil
> Liberties Union asserts that schools already can post the Ten
> Commandments if they are integrated into the study of history. Displays
> of the Ten Commandments in schools have been repeatedly struck down by
> courts as violating the separation of church and state. Opponents said
> the measure could bring lawsuits against schools and the state.
>
> Item #3 - Wilson Center Fellowships:  The Woodrow Wilson International
> Center for Scholars has announced the opening of its 2002-2003 Fellowship
> competition. The application deadline is October 1, 2001. Residential
> fellowships are available to individuals in the social sciences and
> humanities with outstanding project proposals on national and/or
> international issues.  For academic applicants, eligibility is limited to
> the postdoctoral level and, normally, to applicants with publications
> beyond the Ph.D. dissertation.  For additional information and
> application materials call (202) 691-4170 or  tap into the Center website
> at: <www.wilsoncenter.org>
>
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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