Joint
letter to conferees on the
Treasury/Transportation funding bill
(H.R. 3058)
The following was hand-delivered to conferees by staff
of the National Coalition for History on behalf of all organizations signing
the joint letter.
American Historical
Association / Association for Documentary Editing
Council of State Archivists / National Council
on Public History
National History Day / National Humanities
Alliance
National Coalition for History / Organization
of American Historians
Society of American Archivists
3 November 2005
The Honorable Christopher Bond
The Honorable Joseph Knollenberg
The Honorable Patty Murray
The Honorable John Olver
and other House and Senate Conferees for the
Transportation/Treasury FY-2006 Appropriations Bill
Dear Conferee:
The work of historians, the teaching of American history,
and the public’s knowledge about our past depend on the documentary
record. However, today the only federal program charged with providing
national leadership to preserve and make this heritage accessible is imperiled.
On behalf of the members of the organizations listed
above, we are writing today to urge you – a conferee on the Treasury/Transportation
funding bill (H.R. 3058) – to support the funding recommendations
for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)
advanced in the House version of this legislation: $5.5 million for grants
and $2 million for administrative and staffing support for this small
but vital program. The historical and archival community is united in
its support for this request.
Established in 1934 within the National Archives and
Records Administration (NARA), the NHPRC is the only grant-making organization,
public or private, whose mission it is to support the publication of the
papers of significant figures and themes in American history. For more
than 40 years, the NHPRC has played an essential federal leadership role
in preserving and publishing the most important historical records that
document American history. The Commission's support for editions has resulted
in the publication of more than a thousand volumes and tens of thousands
of microfilms, most notably the papers of founders John Adams, Benjamin
Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington, and
the papers documenting the ratification of the United States Constitution,
the First Federal Congress, and the early Supreme Court. Projects publishing
the papers of several other American Presidents, such as Lincoln, Grant,
and Jackson, also receive support, along with award-winning editions such
as Freedom, A Documentary History of Emancipation and the Correspondence
of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and the Papers of Thomas
Edison.
The availability of these published volumes has revolutionized
historical scholarship and made possible numerous new popular biographies,
such as Joseph Ellis’s His Excellency, George Washington. Students
competing in National History Day make use of them; curriculum specialists
draw from them; and judges cite them. But their impact is just beginning.
As the presses which publish these volumes make them available on the
Internet, their accessibility will open up the records of our democracy
for myriad other uses.
The “R” in NHPRC stands for a program that
has been the catalyst for essential regional and national coordination
on archives-related matters, and it supports a wide range of other activities
relating to America's documentary heritage. NHPRC's activities and records
grants have reached almost every Congressional district in the nation.
A leading archivist recently stated that virtually every major archival
advance of the last thirty years had an NHPRC grant as part of it. This
program has stimulated statewide, regional, and national cooperation among
archivists in all the states and territories. The Commission has also
put a high priority on addressing the issues and problems relating to
the essentially important issue of the preservation of electronic records.
It is through the NHPRC and its grants that the National Archives is able
to provide leadership on this key issue and many others.
The grants program of the NHPRC has been so effective
partly because the grants have been made only for direct costs and have
required a substantial contribution on the part of the sponsoring institution
and some assurance of long-term impact. In the case of records grants,
the end goal has often been the continuation of an archival program where
none existed before the grant. In addition, the NHPRC-assisted State Historical
Records Advisory Boards have stimulated strategic planning, including
disaster preparedness, at the state level. The federal funding leverages
institutional, state, local, and private contributions. Without the grants,
the non-federal funding for the editions and records projects would be
likely to disappear as well.
As we Americans take stock of who we are and decide
what parts of our culture, history, and values we will bring with us into
the future, we must preserve the historical evidence. The NHPRC is playing
a vital role In preserving, protecting, and making accessible to the nation
that history.
While understanding that the constraints on the budget
this year have never been greater and that conferees face unusually difficult
choices in crafting the final version of the FY 2006 Treasury/Transportation
appropriation bill, we urge you to support a funding level of $7.5 million
($5.5 for grants; $2 million for administrative/staffing support), which
represents an almost 50% cut from the NHPRC’s FY2004 funding level,
when you reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions
of the Treasury/Transportation bill.
Sincerely,
(signatures)
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