Our friends at the National Humanities Alliance report that the co-chairs of the Congressional Humanities Caucus, Rep. David Price (D-NC) and Rep. Thomas Petri (R-WI), have prepared a Dear Colleague letter in support of $230 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities in fiscal year 2010.  The letter is currently circulating in the House of Representatives to garner additional co-signers.  Please call your member of Congress and ask him/her to show their support for the humanities by signing the letter before it is submitted on April 1, 2009, to Chairman Norm Dicks (D-WA) and Ranking Member Michael Simpson (R-ID) of the Interior, Environment, & Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee.  A list of members who have already agreed to sign the letter is provided below.

Please contact your representative today by calling the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.  Click here to use your zip code to identify your member of Congress.

A copy of the Price/Petri letter is online here (PDF). As of noon today, the letter had been co-signed by Shelley Berkley (D-NV/1), Howard Berman (D-CA/28), Mike Capuano (D-MA/8), John Conyers (D-MI/14), Bill Delahunt (D-MA/10), John Dingell (D-MI/15), Jim Gerlach (R-PA/6), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ/7), Rush Holt (D-NJ/12), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX/30), Jim Langevin (D-RI/2), John Lewis (D-GA/5), Dave Loebsack (D-ID/2), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY/14), Jim McDermott (D-WA/7), Jim McGovern (D-MA/3), Jerry McNerney (D-CA/11), Michael Michaud (D-ME/2), Dennis Moore (D-KS/3), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY/8), Nick Rahall (D-WV/3), Bobby Rush (D-IL/1), Mike Thompson (D-CA/1), Robert Wexler (D-FL/19), David Wu (D-OR/1), and John Yarmouth (D-KY/3).

As one of the few significant sources of support for research and dissemination in history, this needs the support over everyone engaged in the larger historical enterprise.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.