NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 13, #1; January 12, 2007)
2. 110th CONGRESS CONVENES
3. SENATE AND HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEES ANNOUNCE RESTRUCTURING
4. FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT MARKED WITH CALL FOR REAUTHORIZATION
5. ARCHIVIST OF THE U.S. CHAIRS AHA SESSION ON THE LIFE CYCLE OF PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES
6. EPA ANNOUNCES FREEZE ON LIBRARY CLOSURES
7. BITS AND BYTES:
Item #1--NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO INTERVIEW WITH ARCHIVIST OF THE U.S. ON THE DECEMBER 31, 2006, RELEASE OF DECLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS
8. ARTICLE OF INTEREST:
“SMU Faculty Complains About Bush Library”--New York Times
1. REPORT FROM THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION ANNUAL MEETING
The 121st meeting of the American Historical Society (AHA) was held last week in Atlanta with nearly 5,000 in attendance. The National Coalition for History’s Policy Board met on January 6, 2007, and approved a fiscal year 2007 budget and work plan. The FY ’07 work plan will be posted on the NCH Website at http://www.h-net.org/~nch
At its annual business meeting on January 6, 2007, members of the AHA adopted a resolution on the war which urges its members, “To take a public stand as citizens on behalf of the values necessary to the practice of our profession, and to do whatever they can to bring the Iraq war to a speedy conclusion.” During its January 7, 2007, meeting, the AHA Council accepted the resolution, but because the resolution came into the Association too late to be published in the December 2006 issue of "Perspectives" prior to the business meeting where it was passed, and because of its intrinsic importance, the AHA Council believes its acceptance should be ratified by a majority of those voting in an email ballot of the membership.
2. 110th CONGRESS CONVENES
The 110th Congress convened on January 4, 2007, with the Democratic Party in control for the first time in over a decade. The 110th Congress will have 233 Democrats and 202 Republicans in the House and a 51-49 Democratic majority in the Senate. As expected, Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was elected as the first woman Speaker of the House. The early part of the year in the House will be spent on what the Democrats are calling their “100-Hours—A New Direction” initiative addressing such issues as lobbying and budget reform, raising the minimum wage, stem cell research and ending federal subsidies for oil companies. Action on all-important appropriations bills will not begin until after the president’s State of the Union address and fiscal year 2008 budget submission towards the end of January.
3. SENATE AND HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEES ANNOUNCE RESTRUCTURING
In the new 110th Congress, the House and Senate Appropriations Committee will have common subcommittee structures, a move that the incoming Appropriations chairmen hope will help to complete action on each of the government funding bills on time, by the start of the new fiscal year on October 1, 2007.
The last time each of the appropriations bills was approved by Congress and signed into law by the start of the federal fiscal year was 1994 -- the last time that current chairmen Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) and Representative Obey (D-WI) led the Senate and House Appropriations Committees. In recent years under Republican rule, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have had a different number of subcommittees -- 10 in the House, 12 in the Senate -- with different jurisdictions. This complicated matters when trying to reconcile funding bills between the House and Senate for the various federal agencies.
The House and Senate Appropriations Committees will each have 12 subcommittees, including a new Financial Services and General Government panel. That new subcommittee will have jurisdiction over federal agencies such as the Treasury Department, the federal Judiciary, and the National Archives and Records Administration. The House Appropriations subcommittee chairs in the House are unavailable at this time. The 12 Senate Appropriations subcommittee chairmen are as follows (key federal agencies of interest to the history and archival communities are noted in parentheses):
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies: Senator Herb Kohl, Wisconsin Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies: Senator Barbara Mikulski, Maryland Defense: Senator Daniel Inouye, Hawaii Energy and Water Development: Senator Byron Dorgan, North Dakota Financial Services and General Government (National Archives and Records Administration) : Senator Dick Durbin, Illinois Homeland Security: Senator Robert Byrd, West Virginia Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies (National Park Service and National Endowment for the Humanities): Senator Dianne Feinstein, California Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Department of Education): Senator Tom Harkin, Iowa Legislative Branch (Library of Congress): Senator Mary Landrieu, Louisiana Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies: Senator Tim Johnson, South Dakota State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs: Senator Pat Leahy, Vermont Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies: Senator Patty Murray, Washington
4. FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT MARKED WITH CALL FOR REAUTHORIZATION
On January 8, 2007, President Bush marked the fifth anniversary of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) by meeting with the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate committees with jurisdiction over NCLB, and urged them to act quickly to reauthorize the education law. Joining the President in the meeting were Senators Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Mike Enzi (R-WY) the chair and ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and Representatives George Miller (D-CA) and Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), the chair and ranking member of the House Committee on Education and Labor.
In a speech this week, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said, “Renewing NCLB is one of the President’s top priorities.” In a joint statement released to the press, Chairmen Kennedy and Miller agreed that changes were needed to the NCLB, but did not give a time frame for reauthorization. One of the key issues for the Democrats will be increased funding to implement NCLB. While the NCLB Act expires this year, many expect Kennedy and Miller to hold preliminary hearings on the law, but to postpone actual reauthorization until 2009 by passing a short-term extension.
In related news, at its recent annual meeting, the American Historical Association’s governing board passed the following resolution:
"Resolved that the American Historical Association supports the addition of history (both U.S. and world history) to the areas of assessment and accountability under the No Child Left Behind Act and calls for systematic efforts, including professional development of in-service teachers, to improve the quality of history teaching at elementary and secondary levels. To bring about these changes, the AHA seeks to work in cooperation with the National Council for History Education, the National Council for Social Studies, and other groups of educators."
5. ARCHIVIST OF THE U.S. CHAIRS AHA SESSION ON THE LIFE CYCLE OF PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES
At last week’s AHA meeting in Atlanta, a session was jointly sponsored with the National History Center to assess the health of the presidential library system. The session was held at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum and was chaired by Allen Weinstein, the Archivist of the United States. Also on the panel were Allida Black, Director of the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project; Sharon Fawcett, Assistant Archivist for Presidential Libraries at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Jay Hakes, Director of the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum; Timothy Naftali, Director of the Richard Nixon Library and Museum; and Anna Nelson, Professor of History at American University.
The wide-ranging discussion touched on a number of subjects. Among the topics discussed were the need for improved public education programs, greater accessibility to archival material and more inter-library coordination on joint seminar topics such as a recent one on the Vietnam War. All agreed that it is a constant struggle to present exhibits in the museums as objectively as possible despite the fact that the facility is dedicated to preserving the memory of a particular president. There was also broad consensus on the need for more funding and staffing to facilitate the processing and release of presidential materials. This challenge will only increase in future presidential libraries with the need to process electronic records.
6. EPA ANNOUNCES FREEZE ON LIBRARY CLOSURES
As we reported last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been under siege from key Democrats for beginning the process last fall of closing down its nationwide network of scientific libraries and destroying documents or shipping them to repositories where they are inaccessible to scientists and the general public. To date, five libraries have been closed. According to “OMB Watch,” in response to congressional criticism, EPA has put on hold its plans to close any additional libraries until Congress has had a chance to review its plans.
7. BITS AND BYTES: Item #1—NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO INTERVIEW WITH ARCHIVIST OF THE U.S. ON THE DECEMBER 31, 2006, RELEASE OF DECLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS—U.S. Archivist Allen Weinstein and J. William Leonard, Director of the NARA's Information Security Oversight Office were interviewed on National Public Radio concerning the passing of the December 31, 2006, deadline for federal agencies to declassify documents 25 years old or older. The full interview can be accessed on NPR’s Website.
8. ARTICLE OF INTEREST: “SMU Faculty Complains About Bush Library,” This “New York Times” article details the controversy that has arisen between school administrators and faculty over Southern Methodist University’s efforts to be selected as the home for the George W. Bush Presidential Library. NYT