NCC Washington Update, vol. 2, # 32, October 3, 1996 by Page Putnam Miller, Director of the National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History <[log in to unmask]> To: Readers of NCC Washington Updates -- With passage last year of the Lobbying Disclosure Act, the NCC was required to make formal and legal its separation from the American Historical Association as an independent organization. As its first officers, we are writing to seek your help and support. The NCC serves as the Washington advocacy office providing an invaluable service to all of us in the historical and archival professions. The contributions of 50 organizations provide most of NCC's budget, but this falls short of the amount needed for our annual operation. If you appreciate NCC's work and its timely updates, please make a contribution of $10, $25, or $50, or whatever you can afford, to this once-a-year appeal. Send your checks -- payable to "NCC" -- to: NCC, 400 A St. SE, Washington, DC 20003. Contribution to the NCC are NOT tax deductible. Martin Ridge, President of the NCC Board of Directors Richard H. Kohn, Treasurer of the NCC Board of Directors 1. The Details of the Omnibus Spending Bill 2. Reauthorization of the Institute of Museum Services 3. Senate Still Debating Parks Bill 1. The Details of the Omnibus Spending Bill -- Details are still scarce on the Omnibus Spending Bill, which weighed 16 pounds and was signed into law by the President on September 30, in time to avoid another government shut down. Some numbers, however, are now available. The National Endowment for the Humanities will have an FY'97 budget of $110 million, its 1996 level. The National Endowment for the Arts also has level funding at $99.5 million. The Institute for Museum Services received an increase of $1 million for a total in FY'97 of $22 million. The operating budget for the National Archives received level funding and the NHPRC grants will hold again at $5 million. Historic preservation programs will also be funded in 1997 at 1996 levels with the exception of some additional money for the National Trust for Historic Preservation to aid in tornado relief. The Fulbright-Hayes program in the Department of Education, which focuses on area and language studies, received $5.27 million up from its FY'96 level of $4.3 million but not as high as its FY'95 level of $5.8 million. The US Information Agency's (USIA) Educational and Cultural Exchange Program, about half of which goes to the Fulbright Academic Exchange Program, is funded in FY'97 at $185 million, which is a 7 % cut. The Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program, which provides grants on the use of the Internet for educational purposes, will receive level funding at $21.5 million. 2. Reauthorization of the Institute of Museum Services --Included in the Omnibus Spending Bill was a six year authorization of a new agency, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which was formed by the combination of the Institute of Museum Services and the public library program that was formerly at the Department of Education. Diane Frankel, the current director of the Institute of Museum Service, will head the new agency and there will be two new deputy director positions, one for museums and one for libraries. The two programs will retain their separate boards and draw their appropriations from separate, non-competing accounts. The law calls for the directorship to alternate between persons from library and museum backgrounds. 3. Senate Still Debating Parks Bill -- As of Thursday, October 3, the Senate was still debating the Omnibus Parks and Public Lands Act. Many observers feel that the chances are good that the snags will be worked out and that the Senate will passed H.R 4236, which the House passed on September 28. Of special interest to historians is the portion of this bill that reauthorizes the Advisory Council for Historic Preservation for the next four years. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * NCC invites you to redistribute the NCC Washington Updates. A complete backfile of these reports is maintained by H-Net. See World Wide Web: http://h-net.msu.edu/~ncc/ * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *