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FW: [NCCmailings] NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol 8, #24, June 14, 200 2



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From: rbcraig@nccph.org [mailto:rbcraig@nccph.org]
Sent: Friday, June 14, 2002 7:37 AM
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Subject: [NCCmailings] NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol 8, #24, June 14, 2002


NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 8, #24, June 14, 2002
by Bruce Craig <rbcraig@nccph.org>
National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History (NCCPH)
*****************

1.   Secretary Norton Testifies Before Senate Appropriations Subcommittee
2.   Cold War Theme Study Bill Gets Senate Hearing
3.   Bush Administration Loses Censorship Legal Battle
4.   Preservationists Seek Initial Historic Barn Funding
5.   National History Day Wrap-up
6.   News Bits and Bytes: Arts Group Economic Report Released; LC Publishes
New Guide to Collections; New Book on Researching National Security
Records; New Director For Smithsonian Press; H-NET Launches H-Museum;
Digitized Collections Survey Issued
7.   Articles of Interest: National Trust Endangered Places posting; "A New
Nationalism on the Rise," Christian Science Monitor (06/11/02)

1.   SECRETARY NORTON TESTIFIES BEFORE SENATE APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE
On June 13, 2002 Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton testified before
the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies on
the department's $10.6 billion budget request for fiscal 2003.  The
President's proposal represents a net decrease of $12.7 million from the
amount provided in the FY 2002 Interior appropriation.

A cordial Interior subcommittee greeted Secretary Norton who summarized her
department's budget request and then fielded questions from the various
members. In her opening statement Norton highlighted a number of
initiatives that are organized around "the Four C's -- conservation through
consultation, cooperation, and communication." Norton reiterated the
President's "commitments to restore our national parks" and explained how
her department's budget priorities were reshaped by the events of September
11 and by problems relating to the department's Indian Trust
obligations.  Norton said that the President's request includes $88.8
million "to continue enhanced security measures" (including $23.7 million
for enhanced security systems at the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln
and Jefferson memorials in the nation's capital) and a boost in spending of
nearly $84 million for Indian Trust-related programs. Norton also mentioned
a special funding request of $56.5 million to prepare for the commemoration
of the 100th anniversary of the National Wildlife Refuge System; this
increase represents the largest dollar increase ever requested in the
history of the refuge system.

Senator Robert C Byrd (D-WV) was unable to attend the hearing.  Instead,
Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) chaired the proceedings.  Dorgan and his
colleagues posed a number of questions to the Secretary focusing on fire
prevention, the high costs of litigation, endangered species, and posed a
host of specific concerns relating to Interior projects and programs in
each members' home state.

The subcommittee will take Secretary Norton's recommendations and draft the
Senate's recommendation in coming weeks.  A mark-up has not yet been
scheduled.

2.  COLD WAR THEME STUDY BILL GETS SENATE HEARING
On June 12, 2002 the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a
hearing on Senator Harry Reid's legislation (S. 1257) as well as
Representative Joel Hefley's (R-CO) House passed measure (H.R. 107) to
require the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a theme study to identify
sites and resources to commemorate and interpret the Cold War.

The legislation directs the Secretary of the Interior to consult and
coordinate with various federal agencies, to enter into cooperative
agreements with governmental entities and historical organizations with the
objective of assessing "Cold War sites and resources" for potential
national park, national historical landmark, and other appropriate
designations.  In Senator Reid's bill, a nine-member advisory committee is
charged to assist the Secretary in carrying out the Act.  Both the
House-passed bill and Reid's measure directs the Secretary to prepare and
publish an interpretive handbook on the Cold War and both authorize
$300,000 for the study.

During the hearing, the National Park Service (NPS) presented testimony
that it is "wholly appropriate" for the NPS to conduct the study, but
recommended several amendments to the measure.  The NPS suggested deletion
of the provision to establish the Cold War Advisory Committee as it would
"add greatly to the cost of a study and time required to compete it due to
the legal requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act."  The Service
also objected to the provision in the House-passed measure to require a
study on the suitability and feasibility of establishing a "central
repository for Cold War artifacts and information." This provision was
strongly supported during the House conducted hearings by Gary Powers Jr.
(son of famed pilot Francis Gary Powers who was shot down over the former
Soviet Union in 1960) who is leading an effort to create a Cold War Museum
in Lorton, Virginia.

Witnesses offering testimony in support of the bill included Senator Harry
Reid (D-NV), Representative Joel Hefley (R-CO), and Steve Ririe, Chairman
of the Silent Heros of the Cold War National Memorial Committee, Las Vegas,
Nevada. Ririe spoke movingly of the need to establish a national memorial
and museum that "would honor all those who lost their lives during the
longest and most dangerous conflict our country ever faced."

The bill is considered non-controversial and is expected to be marked-up by
the Committee in the near future.

3.  BUSH ADMINISTRATION LOSES CENSORSHIP LEGAL BATTLE
The Bush Administration has lost an important round in an ongoing legal
battle in which the Administration attempted to assert exclusive executive
department authority over the classification and declassification of
government information.  In a 110-page Federal court decision issued June
9, 2002, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan emphatically rejected White
House claims that the executive branch alone has the right to determine who
may have access to classified information and that such determinations are
not subject to judicial review.  In making the decision, the court ruled
that the judicial branch indeed does have the jurisdiction to review
executive branch decisions about classification of government (including
national security related) information.

The case focuses on governmental review of a 500-page manuscript titled,
"Inside China's Nuclear Weapons Program," written by Danny Stillman, a
retired chief intelligence officer who worked at the Los Alamos National
Laboratory.  During the pre-publication review of the manuscript,
government censors sought to delete some 20 percent of Stillman's
study.  Stillman sued the Department of Defense and the CIA claiming that
they were violating his First Amendment Rights.  In asserting its right to
censor the manuscript the government argued that the Constitution gave the
executive branch total authority to control access to classified
information and therefore was well within its rights to deny granting
access to classified portions of the manuscript to Stillman's attorney,
Mark S. Zaid.

But the court disagreed.  In rebuffing the Administration's position, Judge
Sullivan stated in no uncertain terms that: "The implications of the
arguments put forth by the government in this case are stunning....The
government argues here that any and all conflicts between national security
interests and individual constitutional rights can not be resolved by the
courts because the Constitution commits the protection of national security
to the Executive Branch....[but that] is not and has never been the
law....If this were the law, the Pentagon Papers case....was wrongly
decided [and] the Freedom of Information Act... would be
unconstitutional....This Court will not allow the government to cloak its
violations of plaintiff's First Amendment rights in a blanket of national
security."

Judge Sullivan ordered the government "to proceed expeditiously" to conduct
the background investigation needed to approve Mr. Zaid's clearance for
access to contested portions of the Stillman manuscript.  While the book is
not yet cleared for publication by government censors, the court's action
is an important step toward that ultimate goal.  But perhaps more
important, "from a First Amendment standpoint," stated attorney Zaid, "this
decision is up there among the most prominent decisions ever issued in this
field."

For Judge Sullivan's 106 page memorandum opinion, tap into:
<http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/01-1342.pdf>.

4. PRESERVATIONISTS SEEK INITIAL HISTORIC BARN FUNDING
As discussed in a recent posting (see "Historic Barn Legislation Signed
into Law," NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 8, #19, May 17, 2002) when the Farm
Security and Rural Investment Act of 2001 became law (P.L. 107-171) an
Historic Barn Preservation Program was authorized to provide grants for the
rehabilitation, repair, fire protection, vandalism prevention, research,
and identification of eligible historic barn structures. Now House and
Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee members are deciding just
how much money to appropriate for this measure in FY 2003.

The Historic Barn Preservation Program will be administered by the
Department of Agriculture's Undersecretary for Rural Development. The
program's goal is to help states protect historic barns that are at least
50 years old for continued agricultural use. State departments of
agriculture, State historic preservation officers, and non-profits with
experience in preserving historic barns are also eligible to receive funds
to identify, document, and conduct research on the development and
evaluation of appropriate techniques and best practices for protecting
historic barns.

Preservationists are seeking an initial appropriation of $5 million for the
historic barn program in FY 2003. Senator James Jeffords (I-VT), the
sponsor of the historic barn provisions in farm bill, has sent a letter to
Agriculture Appropriations Chairman Herb Kohl (D- WI) and Ranking Minority
Member Thad Cochran (R-MS) requesting this amount for the program.

Persons interested in advancing this program are urged to contact their
Senators and urge them to support this $5 million funding level. You can
reach your Senator's office by calling the Capitol switchboard at (202)
224-3121.

5.  NATIONAL HISTORY DAY WRAP-UP
This year, during the annual nationwide National History Day (NHD) contest,
over 700,000 students competed for cash and prizes by producing evocative,
creative, and thought-provoking projects on the theme "Revolution, Reaction
and Reform."  From June 9-13, at the University of Maryland, College Park,
the NHD contest brought together some 2,000 students from across the
country.  During the awards ceremony, Secretary of Education Rod Paige
delivered the keynote address.

According to Executive Director Cathy Gorn, NHD seeks to "raise a
generation of young people with solid skills in research, thinking, and
presentation." To this end, each year NHD seeks to improve the teaching and
learning of history in elementary and secondary schools so that students
can become better prepared, knowledgeable citizens. Though publications and
educational programs NHD provides a critically acclaimed model for
education reform and professional development.  For more information, tap
into the NHD webpage at: <http://wwwNationalHistoryDay.org>.

6.  NEWS BITS AND BYTES
Item #1 -- Arts Group Economic Report
According to a report issued June 10, 2002 by Americans for the Arts, a
Washington-based advocacy group for arts organizations, the arts community
generates $134 billion in economic activity annually and employs some 4.85
million full-time-equivalent jobs.  Arts activities also generate a total
of $24 billion in tax revenue.  The report, "Arts and Economic Prosperity:
The Economic Impact of Nonprofit Arts Organizations and Their Audiences"
suggests that arts and humanities activities are a far more significant
contributor to prosperity than previous believed. For more information
about the report, tap into: <http://www.artsusa.org/EconomicImpact/>.

Item #2 -- Library of Congress Publishes New Guide to Collections The
Library of Congress has published a new guide, "Motion Pictures,
Broadcasting, Recorded Sound: An Illustrated Guide" that describes the vast
collections of the Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded
Sound Division (M/B/RS).  The guide includes descriptions of historic
broadcasts including Franklin Roosevelt's "fireside chats" and the
Library's NBC Collection - the most comprehensive publicly available
broadcasting archives in the United States. The guide is a 88-page
softcover book with 109 illustrations and is available for $18 from the
Library of Congress Sales Shop (Credit card orders 888-682-3557) and from
the Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 152-7954
(cite stock number 030-001-00162-8).

Item #3 -- New Book on Researching National Security Records:  Researchers
often report that navigating through the nation's archives and records
repositories in search of particular documents can be a daunting and
discouraging task. This is especially true when conducting national
security research.  James E. David of the National Air and Space Museum has
written a new book entitled, "Conducting Post-World War II National
Security Research in Executive Branch Records, A Comprehensive Guide."  The
book provides a detailed itemization of what kinds of national security
records are located where, along with notations on their status and
availability. The book is priced at $85 but it has the potential to save
researchers considerable time in finding what they are looking for, and to
alert others to the existence of records they might never have known
about.  For more about the book tap into:
<http://www.greenwood.com/books/BookDetail.asp?sku=GR1986>.

Item #4 -- New Director for Smithsonian Institution Press:  The Smithsonian
Institution has named Don Fehr as Director of the Smithsonian Institution
Press.  Fehr, a graduate of Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts and a
master's degree from Harvard University, is currently publishing director
of The Perseus Press, the United Kingdom-based division of  The Perseus
Books Group, and executive editor of Basic Books in New York. Previously he
was a senior editor at Viking Penguin (1995-1997), Addison Wesley
(1992-1995) and Atheneum (1989-1992).  Fehr succeeds Peter F. Cannell, who
had served the Smithsonian Institution Press in a variety of editorial and
administrative capacities since 1988 but died in May.  The Smithsonian
Institution Press publishes approximately 70 scholarly and general-interest
titles annually in fields that reflect the research and collections
strengths of the Institution. Its principal subject specialties are
American studies and American history; anthropology and archaeology;
aviation, military, and space history; museum studies; and the natural
sciences and natural history.

Item #5 -- H-NET Launches H-Museum:  H-Net, an international,
interdisciplinary organization of scholars and teachers dedicated to
developing the enormous educational potential of the Internet and the World
Wide Web, has created a moderated mailing list and information forum for
museum professionals. H-Museum has a specific emphasis on museums and the
Internet, but addresses themes and questions relating to museums,
memorials, archaeology, history, culture and art. For more information, tap
into: <http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~museum/>.

Item #6 -- Digitized Collections Survey Issued: A new study entitled
"Status of Technology Digitization in the Nation's Museums and Libraries
2002 Report" by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) shows
that only a third of museums and academic libraries, and only a quarter of
public libraries, are involved in projects designed to make traditional
materials available to users in a digital format such as on CD-ROM or
accessible online via the Internet. The report is available online from
IMLS at: <http://www.imls.gov/Reports/TechReports/intro02.htm>.

7.   ARTICLES OF INTEREST
Two articles this week: First, the National Trust for Historic Preservation
has released this year's list of the eleven "most endangered places."  For
the listing tap into: http://www.nthp.org/news/docs/20020606_11most.html/>.

Second, an article in the Christian Science Monitor, "A New Nationalism on
the Rise" (06/11/02) suggests that in a shift that predates the 9/11
terrorist attacks, some cultural observers see an era of new nationalism
that goes beyond red-white-and-blue symbolism. Based on recently released
census figures, observers note that there has been a sharp jump since the
revival of ethnic identity in the 1960s and 70s in people identifying their
ethnic background as simply 'American' or 'US,' making that category the
fourth largest 'ancestry' for the first time since the Census Bureau began
asking the question in 1980. For the article, tap into:
<http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0611/p02s02-ussc.html>.

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