Appropriations Update. The Continuing Resolution passed in the final hours of the first session of the 99th Congress included $101.363 million for the National Archives and Records Administration. Of this amount $4 million is once again earmarked for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. A much needed new preservation program at the National Archives is slated to receive the slight increase in this year’s budget. The FY’86 appropriation for the National Endowment for the Humanities is $138.6 million, which is a reduction of approximately $1 million. The Commission for the Bicentennial of the Constitution, which was named last fall and is now beginning its work, received $12 million. Funding for historic preservation decreased slightly from last year, with the FY’86 appropriation at $20.411 mil lion for the state programs and $4.383 million for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Additional cuts in the 1986 budget will occur this spring with the implementation of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings deficit reduction legislation. Many legislative aides are expecting an across-the-board retroactive reduction in FY’86 appropriations of approximately 4 percent for agencies such as NEH, the National Park Service, and the National Archives.
Presidential Nominees for NEH and the National Archives Still Pending. The White House Personnel Office is still interviewing possible candidates to head the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Archives and Records Administration. Some are suggesting that it may be summer before the newly selected leaders assume their duties. After the President makes a selection, the FBI conducts security checks before a name is officially forwarded to the Senate. Then the appropriate Senate committee must have time to consider the nomination, hold confirmation hearings, and deliberate on its recommendation. Finally the Senate must vote on the nomination.
Department of State’s Foreign Relations Series. For the past four years historians have been expressing grave concern that volumes in the State Department’s series Foreign Relations of the United States are lagging far behind an original twenty-year deadline and are now surpassing the thirty-four-year mark. However, a partial breakthrough has now occurred in the lengthy struggle for declassification of government documents for the 1940s and 1950s. President Reagan recently sent a memorandum to agency heads directing them to cooperate in collection of documents and declassification re view to enable publication of the historical foreign affairs record no later than thirty years after the event. Betty Unterberger, a Texas A & M history professor and the President of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, commented: “I consider this a triumph, but we still have a long way go.” Noting the adverse affects of the current declassification policy on the teaching and writing of history, Unterberger stated: “I’m at a loss with my graduate students. I’ve had to tell them that they can’t work on anything after 1950 and even some topics before 1950 because it is impossible to get the necessary materials.” William Z. Slany, who heads the State Department’s historical office, called the President’s memorandum “a major step forward,” but added the reminder that “accomplishments of such objectives will, however, require careful and persistent effort within government and encouragement and attention from the academic community.”
NCC National Policy Board Meets. The National Policy Board of the National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History met on December 28 to consider program and advocacy policies for 1986. Composed of organizations contributing a minimum of $2,000 annually to the NCC, a representative of the NCC state committee network, and three rotating members selected from those organizations contributing less than $2,000 annually, the Policy Board members for 1986 are: the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the Society of American Archivists, the Western History Association, Phi Alpha Theta, and the Southern Historical As sociation, plus the three rotating members for 1986—the American Military Institute, the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, and the History of Science Society. Stanley Hordes of the New Mexico Committee for the Promotion of History represents the state committee network. The Policy Board reviewed specific advocacy issues and discussed at some length strategies concerning presidential appointments, appropriations legislation, and information policy. Income in 1985 from the thirty-five member organizations, departmental associates and state archives totaled $46,206. Member organizations, many of whom have contributed the same amount for the past three years, are being encouraged to increase their pledges in hopes that the NCC can meet a targeted income figure of $51,000 in 1986.
