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.
 
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