The Interior-Environment bill is the fifth of 12 fiscal 2010 appropriations bills to be enacted into law. Two bills are awaiting conference action, and five others have yet to be passed by the Senate. As a result, the agencies covered by those bills will continue to be funded under the CR at the FY 2009 level.

Included in those bills is the Financial Services and General Government FY 2010 appropriations bill that provides funding for the National Archives and Records Administration and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. In addition, the Labor, HHS and Education FY 2010 appropriations bill, that includes funding for the Teaching American History Grants program at the Department of Education and the Institute for Museum and Library Services, has yet to pass the Senate.

The Administration proposed transferring oversight responsibility for the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs program (NCACA) from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts to the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Obama administration’s budget included $10 million in new funding to NEH to administer a redesigned program of competitive grants to arts, historical, and cultural institutions in the District of Columbia. However, Congress rejected this proposal and the bill retains the status quo with respect to the NCACA.

FY 10 NEH Funding by Program (FY 10 vs. FY 09 enacted)
(Amounts in thousands)

$40,370 – Federal/State partnership ($35,000) +$5,370
$17,116 – Preservation and access ($16,000) +$1,116
$15,616 – Public programs ($14,500) +$1,116
$16,866 – Research programs ($14,500) +$2,366
$15,616 – Education programs ($14,500) +$1,116
$750 – Program development ($400) +$350
$14,500 – We The People Initiative grants ($15,800) -$1,300
$4,866 – Digital Humanities Initiatives ($4,000) +$866
$125,700—Subtotal Grants————-($114,700) +$11,000

$4,800 – Treasury funds ($5,000) -$200
$9,500 – Challenge grants ($9,300) +$200
$14,300– Subtotal Matching Grants—-($14,300)

$27,500 – Administration ($26,000) +$1,500

$167,500 – TOTAL HUMANITIES ($155,000) +$12,500

Funding for historical and preservation-related programs at the Park Service is summarized below. Please note below that for comparison purposes, the FY ’09 appropriation will be included in parentheses after the FY 2010 budget number.

Historic Preservation Fund–$79.5 million ($69.5 million) +$10 million. The Fund includes:

• State Historic Preservation Offices-–$46.5 ($42.5 million) +$4 million
• Tribal Grants–$8 million ($7 million) +$1 million
• Save America’s Treasures program–$25 million ($20 million) +$5 million: Of this amount, $14,800,000 is for competitive grants and the remaining $10.2 million in funds are allocated to congressionally earmarked projects. These funds are used to make small one-time grants for specific local historic preservation projects to preserve a building or artifact which might otherwise be lost.

National Recreation and Preservation–$68.4 million ($59.6 million) +$8.8 million. This account includes:

Heritage Partnership programs–$17.8 million ($15.7 million) +$2.1 million. Of this amount $16.8 million is for grants. These funds finance grants to local non-profit groups in support of historical and cultural recognition, preservation and tourism activities. The increase is to allow funding for the expanded number of heritage partnership areas authorized by Congress in recent years. In addition, the bill will provide at least $150,000 to the new areas without approved plans.

Preserve America program—$4.6 million (zero funding) +$4.6 million: This program provides small grants to local communities in support of heritage tourism, education and historic preservation planning activities. This program received no funding in FY 2009.

Cultural Programs–$25 million ($22.6 million) +$2.4 million

Japanese American Confinement Sites—the bill includes funding across for the preservation of sites associated with the confinement of Japanese Americans during World War II. The Committee included $3,000,000 for the Japanese American Site Grants program, and $350,000 for land acquisition.

Other provisions:

$9 million for Civil War battlefield preservation grants.

$1 million is allocated towards the establishment of a pilot program for the teaching of American history and civics in the National Parks. The conferees directed the Park Service to work cooperatively with the Department of Education in developing curriculum and facilitate the process of bringing nationally renowned scholars to historically significant Park units to instruct students and teachers at the sites where important historical events occurred.

Sesquicentennial Civil War Planning—In anticipation of the upcoming Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the House and Senate conferees encouraged the National Park Service, in collaboration with the Civil War Preservation Trust and other organizations, to update the content of its website and the information available at its Civil War Parks and to employ modern technology and adaptive and interactive media to present this information to the public.

The bill provides $15 million for the Park Partnership Project Grants program. It is a matching grant program that allows the Park Service to fund merit-based signature projects and programs throughout the park system. It allows the NPS to leverage, from non-federal sources, no less than 50 percent of the total cost of each project. The program was launched during the Bush administration to help celebrate the Park Service’s centennial in 2016. Congress did not provide any funding for the program in FY 2009.

Of that amount, $636 million is allocated to Salaries and Expenses which is $2 million more than the Obama administration requested. The increase above the request is designated for the museum-wide collections care initiative to assist the Institution in strengthening its efforts to preserve historical collections.

$125 million is allocated for Facilities Capital expenditures. The bill includes $20 million for the design of the new National Museum of African American History and Culture which will be built on the National Mall.

The bill includes $30,000,000 for the Legacy Fund in fiscal year 2010. The Legacy Fund was established in fiscal year 2008 to address major facility repair needs at the Smithsonian Institution. The conference report targets the money towards the development of a public-private partnership that will facilitate the reopening of the Arts and Industries Building, provided the funds are matched on a 1:1 basis with private contributions. The funding may be made available incrementally as private sector funding is raised.

The bill includes $250,000 for the Civil Rights History Project, a 5-year initiative to record oral and video histories of those who lived during the African American Civil Rights movement between 1954 and 1968. The Smithsonian and the Library of Congress jointly administer the program. The Library of Congress also received $250,000 in its FY 2010 budget for the project.

Here is a breakdown of the salary and expenses funding for Smithsonian history-related museums, archival and library programs.

• Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage–$2.2 million
• National Museum of American Art and Culture–$12.1 million
• National Museum of American History–$22.2 million
• National Museum of the American Indian–$32.8 million
• National Air and Space Museum–$16.1 million
• National Museum of National History–$47.7 million
• Smithsonian Institution Archives–$1.8 million
• Smithsonian Institution Libraries–$10 million

The bill includes specific allocations of funds for the following programs:

• National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program–$7.6 million
• Digital Collections and Educational Curricula Program–$7.3 million
• Veteran’s History Project–$2.2 million
• Civil Rights History Projects Act–$250,000. Note: The Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress jointly administer the program. The Smithsonian also received $250,000 in its FY 2010 budget for the project. It is a 5-year initiative to record oral and video histories of those who lived during the African American Civil Rights movement between 1954 and 1968.
• Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission–$750,000

President Obama announced his intent to nominate Ferriero to position on July 29.

The ROTUNDA Founders Early Access project makes available for the first time letters and other papers penned by important figures such as James Madison, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. The Founders Early Access portion of the site allows users to read, search, and browse the newly transcribed documents, and is available at no cost to users.

In 2008, Congress urged the National Archives to investigate ways to make the Founders Papers more readily available. Later that year, NARA issued The Founders Online, a report which included a plan for providing online access, within a reasonable timeframe, to historians, scholars, and the general public at no cost.

As long-time funders of the print editions of the Founding Fathers documentary projects, the NHPRC worked with the editorial teams and supported a pilot demonstration project through Documents Compass, a nonprofit organization designed to assist in the digital production of historical documentary editions.

Over the past ten months, the pilot has transcribed and completed basic transcription verification for roughly 5,000 documents. These transcriptions will be fully verified, and the editorial teams will provide explanatory annotation as they proceed with their work. Each completed volume of a documentary edition contains roughly 500 documents and provides notations that identify historical figures and events to shed light on the papers’ meaning and significance.
The Founders historical documentary editions include the papers of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, as well as the Documentary History of the Ratification of the U.S. Constitution, the first Federal Congress, and the first Supreme Court. Rotunda is publishing digital editions of some of these publications in its American Founding Era Collection.

Consisting of 25 members from government, business and academia, the commission will develop and carry out programs to ensure suitable National observances of the anniversary. The private members will include 5 individuals from the corporate community, 6 historians, 1 individual with expertise in art history or historic preservation, 1 individual with expertise in anthropology, cultural geography or sociology, and a final representative with expertise in political science, law or economics.

Among its duties, the commission is tasked with encouraging interdisciplinary examination of the Civil War, coordinating and facilitating the public distribution of scholarly research publications and interpretations of the Civil War, and providing technical assistance to States, localities and non-profits to assist in their commemorations.

In awarding grants, the NEH is directed to consider established university, museum or academic programs with national scope that sponsor multidisciplinary projects, including those that concentrate on African Americans in the Civil War.

The new Federal Register portals include:

• GPO’s Federal Digital System
• The Federal Register Web site
• Government’s new portal for Government data

The change supplements the official publishing formats with XML, a form of text that can be manipulated in virtually limitless ways with digital applications. For example, people who want to know about the workings of the Executive branch of the Federal Government no longer need to sift through the Federal Register in its traditional Department-by-Department and Agency-by-Agency format. In this new format users can rearrange the Federal Register’s contents in personalized ways to match their particular interests. It is now possible, for example, to download the Federal Register and easily see what proposed actions might affect one’s community or region, or what actions might have an impact on one’s profession or business interests.