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(FWD) NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 7, #34, August 9, 2001



> NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 7, #34, August 9, 2001
> by Bruce Craig <rbcraig3@juno.com> of the National Coordinating Committee
> for the Promotion of History
> *****************
>
> 1.    Congress in Recess - Minor Progress on Education Bill Reported
> 2.    HUAC Records Unsealed - Open for Scholarly Research
> 3.    Smithsonian Receives Overlapping Gifts; Secretary Small's
> "Discretionary Fund" Questioned
> 4.    National Archives Seeks Experts to Recover "Gap" in Nixon Tape
> 5.    Legislation Introduced: Senate Version of Cold War Theme Study
> 6.    Indonesia FRUS Volume Released
> 7.    News Bits and Bytes: Report on National Park System Issued
>
>
> 1.    CONGRESS IN RECESS - MINOR PROGRESS ON EDUCATION BILL REPORTED
> On Friday, August 3, 2001, Congress began its annual summer recess; the
> Senate will reconvene on September 4 and the House will meet again on
> September 5.
>
> In the last minute flurry of activity, Congress passed a number of
> appropriation bills (none of great interest to the historical/archival
> community), and they passed an energy act. Conferees also continued to
> meet in an effort to resolve the differences between the Senate and House
> passed versions of H.R. 1, President Bush's "No Child Left Behind Act of
> 2001" education bill. The attempt to devise a workable accountability
> system continues to trouble the conferees. Hill insiders report that in
> spite of some progress in resolving some minor differences in the bill,
> an education reform plan is not likely to reach the President's desk
> until sometime this fall.
>
> 2.     HUAC RECORDS UNSEALED - OPEN FOR SCHOLARLY RESEARCH
> On August 8 the NCC issued a press release announcing that some 1, 245
> feet of records of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)
> are now open for scholarly research.
> The decision to unseal the records was made in response to a letter sent
> by the NCC  to the Honorable F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., Chairman of the
> House Committee on the Judiciary (see NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 7, #
> 26, June 22, 2001). The press release is posted at
> http://www/fas.org/sgp/news/2001/08/huac.html
>
> The NCC had been seeking the release of these documents since 1998.
> Efforts to open the records stalled when Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL), Chairman
> of the House Judiciary Committee, declined to respond to the NCC request
> to open the records made at the time; the NCC was informed that the
> Committee had a full schedule due to the impeachment of President Bill
> Clinton and consequently the HUAC matter would have to wait.  With the
> 107th Congress, however, a new Chairman took over the Committee - James
> Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-WI).  In less than a month after the request was
> made to open the records, the NCC received a letter signed by Jeff
> Trandahl, Clerk of the House (whose office is charged by Congress to
> maintain custodial care of the HUAC records) that set parameters for
> opening the records.
>
> Public access to these records will be governed by Rule VII of the House
> of Representatives (http://clerkweb.house.gov/107/docs/r8ules/rule_7.htm)
> that establishes eligibility criteria for making available to the public
> non-current, permanent records of the House. According to the Clerk's
> letter, "some of these records are not available for public review
> pursuant to the Rule; depending on the scope and category of records that
> may be requested, response times could vary because of the size and
> complexity of the collection." And according to NARA officials, the
> records will need to be screened on a case-by case basis prior to the
> release of any materials. Requests to gain access to the records should
> be directed to: the National Archives, Center for Legislative Archives,
> (202) 501-5350.
>
> 3.   SMITHSONIAN RECEIVES OVERLAPPING GIFTS; SECRETARY SMALL'S
> "DISCRETIONARY FUND" QUESTIONED
> According to the New York Times (Elaine Sciolino, "Smithsonian Must
> Exhibit Ingenuity in the Face of Overlapping Gifts," Monday, August 6,
> 2001) the Smithsonian Institution has discovered yet another possible
> "embarrassment of riches."
>
> It appears that the $38 million pledge of the Catherine B. Reynolds
> Foundation for a "hall of fame of achievers" - the so called Spirit of
> America hall that has generated so much controversy (see NCC WASHINGTON
> UPDATE, Vol. 7, #22, June 1, 2001) - apparently overlaps with a previous
> gift from the Smithsonian's largest donor in history,  Kenneth E.
> Behring.  About $20 million of Behring's recent $80 million gift to the
> National Museum of American History was donated specifically to finance a
> 18-20,000 square foot "thematic hall" designed to focus on "American
> legends and legacies" including Americans who epitomize "the American
> Spirit" achievers.
>
> Ivan Selin, Chairman of the museum board said officials did not realize
> the potential conflict between the two exhibitions until it was too late.
> Museum managers believe that the conflict is not fatal to the Reynolds
> project since the exhibits could be designed to be complementary, but the
> duplication in purpose indeed, "has left open questions that might have
> been answered before the contract was signed."
>
> For example, it appears fusing the exhibitions would be difficult.
> A"Behring-Reynolds exhibition hall" is not likely as each of the two
> donation contracts (which have yet to be made public) explicitly provide
> for the naming of each hall after the donor, subject to the approval of
> the Smithsonian Board of Regents.  Smithsonian insiders report that the
> problem probably never would have arisen had American History museum
> officials been involved in the Reynolds contract negotiations; that
> contract was negotiated by Secretary Small's staff.
>
> In a related story, the Washington Post ("It's No Small Change, but at
> Least Its His Own," The Washington Post, August 7, 2001 p. C-3) reports
> that Secretary Lawrence Small is "raising eyebrows" with his use of
> private executive jets.  For example, recently, the Secretary personally
> payed for a $14,600 trip on a Lear Jet 35 to attend a museum
> groundbreaking in Texas and then returned to Washington D.C. to attend a
> Smithsonian Regents meeting.  Reportedly, Small paid for the luxury
> transport "out of his own pocket" but, as it turns out, this is not
> entirely correct.
>
> According to Smithsonian officials, the Secretary did not pay the costs
> directly but donated the funds to a special Smithsonian "discretionary
> fund" set up specifically for the Secretary's use.  Other Secretarys have
> had similar funds established for their use.  In theory (and perhaps in
> practice), when the Secretary donates to the fund, he is eligible to take
> a tax deduction for a "charitable donation" to the Smithsonian and thus
> lessen his annual tax burden which in turn lessens general tax revenue to
> the U.S. treasury (Small receives a salary of $480,000 a year as
> Secretary, considerably less than his reported 1999 earnings of $4.2
> million as President of Fannie May.) Museum officials were not aware of
> how Mr. Small itemizes for tax deduction purposes on his personal IRS tax
> form for such "out-of-pocket contributions" to his discretionary fund.
> Because he is not a Presidential appointee, Smalls tax forms need not be
> disclosed to the public.
>
> 4.   NATIONAL ARCHIVES SEEKS EXPERTS TO RECOVER "GAP" IN NIXON TAPE
> On August 8, 2001, the National Archives and Records Administration
> (NARA) published a "Request for Information" in the Commerce Business
> Daily asking for "expressions of interest" from individuals interested in
> participating in a project to assess the feasibility of attempting to
> recover erased audio program material from an 18.5 minute segment of the
> famous "Nixon White House Tape" (#342) without damaging the original tape
> in any way.
>
> The forensic project is expected to take two years.  For 12 months, NARA
> will evaluate concept submissions from project participants to determine
> the feasibility of recovering the erased audio recording segment of the
> original Nixon Watergate tape. NARA will provide participants with test
> tapes and ask them to recover intelligible speech from these tapes.  NARA
> then will evaluate the results and assess the feasibility of demonstrated
> recovery techniques and the potential risk to the original tape before
> attempting to recover the erased audio from the famous tape.
>
> Interested parties should contact Michael Hamilton, Supervisory
> Audiovisual Specialist, Nixon Presidential Materials Staff at (301)
> 713-6950 Ext. 273 (Michael.hamilton@nara.gov).
>
> 5.     LEGISLATION INTRODUCED: SENATE VERSION OF COLD WAR THEME STUDY
> On July 27, 2001, Senator Harry M. Reid (D-NV) introduced legislation (S.
> 1257) similar to Rep. Joel Hefley's House of Representatives bill (H.R.
> 107; see NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol.7, #3, January 18, 2001) to require
> the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a theme study to identify sites
> and resources to commemorate and interpret the Cold War.  Hearings on
> H.R. 107 have already taken place (see WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 7, #10,
> March 9, 2001) and the legislation is expected to see some action when
> Congress reconvenes after the summer recess. Senator Reid's bill has been
> referred to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee for action.
>
> 6.    INDONESIA FRUS VOLUME RELEASED
> In the last issue of the NCC UPDATE we reported on the disputed Indonesia
> FRUS volume that was posted on the world wide web by the George
> Washington University's National Security Archive (see NCC WASHINGTON
> UPDATE, Vol. 7, #32 August 2, 2001). The volume was released late in the
> day on August 8, 2001 by the Department of State.  We now also have more
> information about how the volume was distributed and ultimately put on
> hold then released for distribution by the State Department.
>
> The volume is one of two State Department documentary FRUS histories that
> the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency reportedly objects to releasing.
> The two disputed volumes cover Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines in the
> years 1964-68 and Greece-Turkey-Cyprus in the same period.
>
> GPO officials have informed the NCC  that "the GPO did not err in
> releasing volume 26."  Printed copies of the book were received in the
> GPO warehouses on April 26 and were distributed "in the normal manner" -
> that is, sent to the depository libraries and placed on public sale.
> However, according to State Department officials, since 1992, contracts
> for printing State Department volumes have normally been embargoed until
> the Department formally releases the text; in this instance, no formal
> press release had yet been issued when the volume was distributed.
> Consequently, on July 18, the State Department requested that GPO stop
> selling the book and the GPO pulled the volume from sales shelves and
> from the GPO electronic bookstore on the world-wide-web.  State
> Department officials released the volume late yesterday.  Discussions
> continue on the fate of the Greece-Turkey-Cypress volume.
>
> 7.  BITS AND BYTES:
> Item #1 - Report on Park System Issued:  A report has been issued by the
> National Park System Advisory Board, a congressionally chartered body of
> twelve citizens appointed by the Secretary of the Interior to advise on
> matters relating to the operation and management of the National Park
> Service (NPS). Historian John Hope Franklin chairs the Board.  The report
> recommends that the NPS expand its efforts to become a major part of the
> nation's educational system, with a special emphasis on teaching history.
>  The report, which includes the results of a  survey of  556 seniors who
> attend 55 of the nations top universities, is yet the latest study to
> document the deplorable knowledge of American history by college
> students.  For example, the survey found that only 60% of the students
> surveyed knew when the Civil War took place. The report concluded that
> the nation is "raising a generation of young Americans who are
> historically illiterate."   "Rethinking the National Parks for the 21st
> Century" is posted at:<http://www.nps.gov/policy/report.htm>.
>
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