Update on Efforts to Save NHPRC Funding for FY06
May 10, 2005—The House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Treasury,
Transportation, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia and Independent Agencies
(T-THUD) held a hearing on NARA on April 26. Archivist of the United States
Allen Weinstein was the sole person scheduled to give testimony. The hearing
went well from the perspective of those concerned about NHPRC. The issue of
NHPRC funding was raised by members in attendance, although Dr. Weinstein was
not in a position, as an appointee of the administration, to be permitted to
surface it at length in his own remarks.
The questions and comments from the
members of Congress show they are hearing from their constituents and appear
to be supportive of restoration of funding.
In particular, Congressman Ralph Regula of Ohio very forthrightly asked about
funding issues. Congressman Regula is the Vice-Chair of the full House Appropriations
Committee, and as such is an ex-officio member of the T-THUD subcommittee.
That he attended, and that he spoke in favor of NHPRC, is a very positive thing.
Other members, including Chairman Knollenberg either made helpful statements
or asked "friendly" questions.
The subcommittee held several hearings
that day, and public testimony was invited for all of those hearings. As
of Tuesday morning before the hearing, 94 pieces
of public testimony had been submitted, 91 of which were on the topic of
NHPRC. That was seen by the subcommittee and its staffers as a very clear indication
of the importance of this issue to their constituents. Thanks to all who
helped
with this!
The transcript of Weinstein's testimony before T-THUD is available
on the National Archives Web site here.
To read the question-and-answer session that followed the testimony, see the
PDF that follows.
If you are a constituent of any of the members who attended,
a brief letter faxed to them thanking them for their attendance and interest
in NHPRC
would be both helpful and a good reminder that the issue is still important.
We need to continue to keep this issue before the House, so if you or your
constituents have not yet written a letter, this is a good
time
to encourage
them to do so. We will be in touch again shortly on launching the
campaign in the Senate. Details on contacting Congress regarding this issue
can be found at any of the following sites:
www.archivists.org
www.coshrc.org
www.savearchives.org
Thanks for your help! The results are heartening, but we
do need to stay the course through the Spring and possibly the Summer.
We'll continue
to keep you
informed.
Members of the NHPRC Joint Advocacy Task Force
Society of American Archivists:
Peter Gottlieb, Rand Jimerson, Joan Krizack, Richard Pearce-Moses,
Nancy Beaumont
Council of State Historical Records Coordinators:
David Carmicheal, Sandra Clark, Kathleen Roe
National Association of Government
Archives and Records Administrators:
Timothy Slavin
ARMA International:
Stacey Moye
See also:
Update on Efforts to Save NHPRC Funding
for FY06 (April 2005)
Providing Public Testimony on NHPRC (April
2005)
NHPRC Budget Zeroed Out for FY2006! (February
22, 2005)
NARA Press Release (February 7,
2005)
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