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Historic Preservation Update and Summary
TomWheaton@AOL.COM
Thu, 10 Aug 1995 17:09:30 -0400
The following summarizes where we stand now vis-a-vis historic preservation
appropriations in the House and Senate. This has been prepared by CEHP
Incorporated for distribution by ACRA to the historic preservation community.
Please take the chance afforded by the August recess and write your senators
and representative. If your members are on the appropriations subcommittees,
please also give them a call and set up a meeting during the recess. Don't
be shy. They love it.
We are nearly home, and the recess gives us a chance to really educate these
guys, and let them know the real consequences of some of the actions they
have been debating in the rush to cut, cut, cut this summer. Remember to be
polite and all the other good things we are supposed to do.
Also remember that the House appropriations subcommittee folks were the ones
who cut out the ACHP altogether, and it was an amendment on the floor of the
House that miraculously reinstated everything. The conference committee
after the recess is NOT a done deal.
Tom Wheaton
Exec Dir - ACRA
PASSES INTERIOR $$$ -
PRESERVATION WINS SOME, LOSES SOME
(Updated Aug. 10)
The Senate passed the fiscal 1996 Interior Appropriations bill yesterday.
As passed, the Senate version of the bill would cut the Historic
Preservation Fund by a little over $1.7 million of the amounts for the
states/tribes and Black colleges or approximately 5%. The House had kept the
funding level at last year's amounts. The National Trust proposed and the
Senate Appropriations Committee accepted a 5-year phase out their federal
funds. The House included only $3.5 million this year and proposed no funding
in future years.
The Senate bill includes $2.5 million for the Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation, with no provisions calling for its elimination. This is over
$500,000 less than the House approved. However, this was a major reversal
for the Senate, as the Council had been targeted by the Senate Budget
Committee for elimination in fiscal year 1997. The House Appropriations
Committee had proposed eliminating the Council entirely, and would have
funded it with only $1 million to close it out in 1996; the full House
overturned this recommendation and voted 267-130 to restore full funding of
the Council at $3.063 million.
The Senate took a further swipe at the Forest Service budget, cutting the
heritage program from $14 million in the House to $13.1. (The Administration
request had been $18.5 million). The cultural resources funding for the
Bureau of Land Management is the same in both bills. $11 million. (The
request had been for $12.6 million.)
The National Endowment for the Humanities picked up an additional $15 million
with an amendment by Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Arkansas) that took the funds from
the National Petroleum Reserve. This increased NEH to $115 million but floor
action cut NEH to $110 million compared to the House's $99.5 million. The
Committee rejected an attempt to raise funding for NEA keeping it at $99.5
million but floor action increased the funding to $110 million.
Senators Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico) and Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) did not
include the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) in their floor amendment that
would increase Indian programs by $200 million at the expense of other
Interior programs. As originally announced, the amendment would have cut
the HPF by $14 million, a 37% reduction. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) has
joined as a cosponsor of the amendment; it was apparently through his efforts
that the HPF was taken off the list of programs to be cut. The Senate
subsequently disapproved the amendment on a vote of 36-61.
ACTION NEEDED:
The bill will now go to a House-Senate Conference Committee, which is
expected to be appointed and convened in September. (Usually the members of
the subcommittee handling the appropriations are appointed to the
Conference.) During the August recess, please write letters to the conferees
urging them to retain the House levels for all the preservation/cultural
resource programs except the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the
National Endowment for the Humanities (in those cases the Senate version is
preferable.)
BREAKDOWN OF APPROPRIATIONS
Following is a breakdown of the differences between the House and Senate
versions for historic preservation/cultural resources programs in the fiscal
1996 Interior Appropriations bills, along with a list of the potential
conferees.
Senate-House (in millions)
$32.712-$34.4Historic Pres. Fund (Originally requested $34.4) States/local
governments, Tribes, & Historic Black Colleges
$ 5.6-$3.5National Trust for Hist. Pres.(Requested:$7)
$ 2.5-$3.063Advisory Council on Historic Pres. (Requested $3.063)
$13.1-$14Forest Service Heritage Program (Requested $18.5)
$110-$99.5National Endowment for the Humanities (Requested $162)
$110-$99.5National Endowment for the Arts (Requested $172)
POTENTIAL CONFEREES
HOUSE
Republicans:
Ralph Regula, Ohio (Interior Appropriations Chair)
Joseph McDade, Pennsylvania
Jim Kolbe, Arizona
Joe Skeen, New Mexico
Barbara Vucanovich, Nevada
Charles Taylor, North Carolina
George Nethercutt, Washington
Jim Bunn, Oregon
Democrats:
Sidney Yates, Illinois (Ranking Member)
Norman Dicks, Washington
Tom Bevill, Alabama
David Skaggs, Colorado
SENATE
Republicans:
Slade Gorton, Chair, Interior Appropriations Subcommittee
Ted Stevens, Alaska
Thad Cochran, Mississippi
Pete V. Domenici, New Mexico
Mark O. Hatfield, Washington (Chair, full Appropriations Committee)
Conrad Burns, Montana
Robert Bennett, Utah
Connie Mack, Florida
Democrats:
Robert C. Byrd, West Virginia (Ranking Member)
J. Bennett Johnston, Louisiana
Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont
Dale Bumpers, Arkansas
Ernest F. Hollings, South Carolina
Hary Reid, Nevada
Patty Murray, Washington
Addresses for Members of Congress
Honorable (full name)
U.S. Senate
Washington DC 20510
Dear Senator (last name unless you are on first name basis):
Honorable (full name)
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington DC 20515
Dear Representative (last name unless you are on first name basis)
Prepared by CEHP Incorporated
All rights reserved.
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