National Historical Publication and Records Commission: On March 22 the House Government Operations Committee considered H.R. 3933, legislation to reauthorize the grants program of the NHPRC, and by unanimous consent endorsed an amended version of the legislation. One change involved the addition of representatives of the Association of Documentary Editors and the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators to the NHPRC Commission. Currently the Commission includes representatives of four organizations—the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the Society of American Archivists, and the American Association for State and Local History—with each having two representatives. H.R. 3933 while adding two new organizations reduces the number of representatives for each organization from two to one. Amendments in the section on the duties and functions of the Commission clarified the authority of the NHPRC in conducting institutes, training and education programs, and disseminating of information.
On March 30 the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3933 by a vote of 370 to 42. In floor debate preceding the vote Representatives Glenn English (D-OK), Al McCandless (R-CA), Jack Brooks (D-TX), and Lindy Boggs (D-LA) extolled the contributions of the NHPRC grants program and urged the passage of H.R. 3933. No one spoke against the bill.
I856, the NHPRC reauthorization bill in the Senate, is still bogged down in the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which did not have the necessary quorum at their last meeting to vote on the measure. There are indications that by the end of April the Senate will have acted on S. 1856. The three major differences between the House and the Senate bills will then have to be worked out by a Conference Committee. In addition to the differences in the composition of the Commission (the Senate bill maintains the status quo) and in the authorities of the Commission, with the House bill providing an expanded statement of duties and function, the major divergence is on funding levels. H.R. 3933 established the funding ceiling for the next five years at $5 million for FY ’89 and FY ’90, $8 million for FY ’91 and FY ’92, and $10 million for FY ’93.
The Senate reauthorization legislation, S. 1856, establishes an appropriation ceiling of $10 million for fiscal years 1989 through 1993.
NEH Funds the Establishment of a History Teaching Research Center: On March 22 the NEH announced a $1.5 million grant, provided over a three year period, to the University of California, Los Angeles, to conduct research aimed at improving history instruction in elementary and secondary schools. Charlotte Crabtree, who heads the Administration, Curriculum and Teaching Studies Division at the UCLA Graduate School of Education, will serve as the Project Director. Gary Nash, history professor at UCLA and a specialist in social history, will serve as the principal historian and will convene a group of ten eminent historians to help identify what historical knowledge and materials should be the substance of history instruction. The center will also examine current teaching approaches, teacher training, and history textbooks, and will develop improved programs for history instruction.
Declassification of Thirty-Year-Old Government Documents: The NCC is renewing efforts to secure a federal pol icy of requiring automatic declassifica tion of thirty-year-old government in formation based on the principal of openness, with restrictions only when there is a demonstration of substantial necessity. Automatic declassification of older documents was a key provision of the executive orders on declassification of the Nixon and Carter administrations. However, Executive Order 12356 issued in 1982 by President Reagan has no timetable for declassification. The result has been that thousands of thirty-year-old documents are still classified due to stringent new declassification rules that demand excessive secrecy about long-past events. The NCC in cooperation with the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations will be contacting the issues specialists for the leading Presidential candidates to discuss automatic declassification. John Shattuck, Vice President of Harvard University, and Muriel Morisey Spence, Director of Policy Analysis at Harvard, have identified in their recent study, “Government Information Controls: Implications for Scholarship, Science, and Technology,” the need for an automatic declassification policy as a key item in their list of information issues that they believe should be an essential part of the agenda of the next administration. The NCC will be coordinating its efforts on declassification with the American Library Association and other organizations that recognize this as a serious problem.
FY ’89 Appropriations Hearings: On March 17 the House Subcommittee on Interior of the Committee on Appropriations held a hearing to consider the FY ’89 budget for the National Endowment for the Humanities. Stephen Nissenbaum, Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts and Chair of the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy, testified on behalf of the NCC. On April 14 I will be testifying before the House Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government on the National Historical Publications and Records Commissions and the National Archives’ FY ’89 budget. On April 29 Charlene Bickford, the Editor of the First Federal Congress Project at George Washington University and member of the Virginia State Historical Records Advisory Board, will testify before the Senate Committee on Appropriation’s Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government. The NCC is requesting $122.862 million for the National Archives, which includes an addition for the NHPRC grants program of $5 million (the Administration requested zero funds for the NHPRC grants program) to the Administration’s request of $117.862 million.
Library of Congress: For some time the future of the main card catalog of the Library of Congress has been a subject of considerable discussion and uncertainty. In a recent statement, James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, announced “there are no plans to destroy this treasured resource,” and asserted “I am committed to keeping it for an in definite period.” Speaking as a working scholar who has used the catalog, Billington stressed that he shared the concern that many have expressed about the catalog and he recognizes the major function it has preformed for many years. When the renovation of the Main Reading Room is completed, the card catalog will be returned to the Jefferson Building and will be located in cases on deck 33, and if necessary, deck 16.
