National Coalition for History

This has been one of the least productive years on Capitol Hill in decades. The New York Times recently reported that the House only passed 27 bills in 2023, which includes a handful of continuing resolutions. As a result, none of our legislative priorities, such as K-12 history and civics bills and funding bills for the National Archives and other federal agencies have seen action.

1. Federal Budget:

A detailed status update on the FY 24 federal budget can be found at the end of this report. As this is written, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson are scrambling to craft yet another continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government operating into early-March. However, as we have seen over the past years, getting conservative Republicans in the House to agree to a budget without severe cuts in non-defense domestic programs has been challenging for former-Speaker McCarthy and Speaker Johnson.

2. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA):

Under the Biden administration’s proposed FY 24 request, NARA would receive a $15.7 million increase in funding for its operating expenses budget, up to a level of $443.5 million. In March, NCH submitted testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee supporting the Biden administration’s proposed increase in NARA’s budget for FY 24.

On May 17, 2023, Dr. Colleen Joy Shogan was sworn in as the 11^th Archivist of the United States. Dr. Shogan is the first political scientist and first woman to serve in the position in a non-acting capacity. After she was nominated by the White House, NCH issued a statement in support of her nomination. At the request of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), NCH submitted questions to be asked of the nominee at her confirmation hearing. NCH also sent letters to HSGAC members endorsing Dr. Shogan’s confirmation. NCH twice issued legislative alerts to our member organizations urging them to send messages of support to the Senate.

Classification and Declassification: The furor over former-President Trump’s mishandling of classified documents has drawn more attention to NARA than perhaps at any time in its existence. Coupled with the subsequent discoveries of classified materials at the homes and offices of then-Vice President Biden and former-Vice President Mike Pence only heightened awareness of the flaws in the ways classified materials are managed and accounted for. NCH endorsed a statement on declassification reforms prepared by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR). NCH sent the statement to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the White House Chief of Staff, and the President’s National Security Advisor.

NCH Working Group on NARA Issues: In 2023, the NCH Board of Directors created a working group to address the numerous policy areas where the interests of our members intersect with NARA and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). In November, the report was submitted to the NCH executive committee for review. It recommends budget priorities and identifies areas for improvement in NARA operations and procedures. The NARA Working Group report is being sent back to the writing committee to respond to questions and concerns raised by the executive committee and board members.

3. K-12 History and Civics Education

Unfortunately, the “Civics Secures Democracy Act (CSDA)”  was not reintroduced in 2023. In 2021, bi-partisan legislation was introduced that would authorize a $5 billion investment by the federal government in K-12 US history and civics education over the next five years ($1 billion per-fiscal year). For a variety of reasons, the bills languished in both the House and Senate. Most vexing was identifying a budget “offset” to pay for them and dispelling allegations the money would be used to fund the teaching of “divisive concepts” in schools.

The House version of the FY 24 Labor, Health and Education appropriations bill would zero out $20 million in funding for the existing American History and Civics competitive grants programs at the US Department of Education. In report language accompanying the bill the Republican majority stated, “The Committee is concerned that the Department is using these grants to push divisive ideology onto school children, such as the widely discredited 1619 project.” This, of course, is not accurate and has been denied repeatedly by the Secretary of Education. The bill was pulled from the House floor due to lack of support from Republican members related to other issues. We expect the grants will be funded in the final FY 24 budget since the Senate version of the bill includes funding at the $20 million level.

4. Divisive Concepts

“Divisive concepts” controversies still plague K-12 classrooms around the nation and legislation has proliferated in numerous state legislatures. Increasingly the focus has shifted, and restrictions are now being aimed at colleges and universities, especially state-run institutions.

NCH opposes the passage of “divisive concepts” legislation by state legislatures. Such bills are designed to limit discussion about racism, sexism, and discrimination in the classroom and/or the workplace. They endanger the academic freedom essential to all classrooms, especially those where history is the focus of discussion and debate.

NCH has created a clearinghouse on our website to provide background information and arguments prepared by organizations at the forefront of the battle against these attacks on history education. We are constantly monitoring the situation and updating the clearinghouse as we find information that is useful to our members. NCH has been publicizing and keeping our membership abreast of AHA’s numerous statements on the subject.

NCH belongs to the Learn from History Coalition. It is a coalition of parents, educators, and other concerned Americans who are working together to combat “divisive concepts” bills and to ensure that all children can learn accurate, thorough, and fact-based history in our schools. NCH is also a member of a coalition formed by PEN America, to share information, coordinate advocacy and monitor developments across the country.

5. Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board

The “Civil Rights Cold Case Investigations Support Act of 2022” (Public Law 117-222) was signed into law by President Biden in December 2022. Because President Trump never appointed any members, passage of the law was necessary to extend the term of the Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board from four to seven years with the option to extend for an additional year, potentially extending the Review Board’s authority to January 8, 2027. In January 2019, President Trump signed into law the “Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act of 2018” (Public Law 115-426). It authorized the National Archives and Records Administration to create a collection of unsolved civil rights case files. In addition, the law established a Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board to determine which records can be released. In February 2022, President Biden appointed, and the Senate confirmed, four of the five members of the board. They are Emory University archivist Gabrielle Dudley, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Henry Klibanoff, civil rights lawyer Margaret Burnham, and UCLA Professor of History and Professor of African American Studies Dr. Brenda Stevenson.  NCH facilitated submission of the nominees from the AHA, the Organization of American Historians and the Society of American Archivists to the White House Office of Personnel. We have learned that the Biden administration does not intend to fill the fifth slot that was authorized under the law. The board has finally begun its work reviewing cases. An executive director and an attorney with experience litigating Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) claims have been hired. The board will be adding a communications director and 4-5 researchers to its staff soon.

6. NCH’s Involvement in Planning for the Nation’s 250th Anniversary Celebration

The U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission has intensified its planning to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026. NCH is a member of the USA 250 steering committee convened by the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) that is providing advice to the commission. The FY 23 and proposed FY 24 federal budgets include $15 million to fund the activities of the commission.

7. Fiscal Year 2024 Federal Budget

In November, Congress passed, and President Biden signed into law, a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the federal government operating into early-2024. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was able to push through the legislation despite opposition from a large group of far-right Republicans.

Under the two-tiered plan, agencies covered by the Agriculture, Energy-Water, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD bills had their funding extended to Jan. 19. The departments and agencies covered by the eight other appropriations bills had funding extended to Feb. 2. Please note that the bills that fund programs of interest to the history, archival, and education communities are included in the second tranche of bills.

The logic was that by pushing the deadline back into the new year, it would give the House and Senate the opportunity to pass the twelve spending bills individually and avoid a situation where all appropriations bills are lumped into a single omnibus spending package as in recent years. Congress left for the holidays without taking any further action on appropriations bills, leaving only a few weeks in January to craft a FY 24 budget which Congress has not been able to do.

As this is being written, the budget process remains in a state of flux. A new CR has been proposed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Speaker Johnson that would extend the expiration deadlines for the appropriations bills listed above to March 1 and March 8, respectively. Given the contentiousness we have seen throughout 2023 and the razor thin Republican majority in the House, there remains a real possibility of a government shutdown.

The Senate Appropriations Committee has already completed action on all twelve appropriations bills that will fund the federal government for FY 24. The House has passed seven of its FY 24 funding bills, with the notable exception of the Labor, HHS and Education bill. In November, that bill was brought to the House floor, but pulled after it was apparent the Republicans lacked the votes to pass it.

During floor consideration in the House of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies bill (HR 4821) an amendment was offered to eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities. NCH sent out a legislative alert in conjunction with the National Humanities Alliance opposing the cuts. The amendment was overwhelmingly defeated 132-292.

Generally the Senate bills include flat funding for FY 24. This reflects the caps on non-defense discretionary spending for the next two fiscal years that were agreed to as part of the budget deal passed last year to raise the debt ceiling. However, Republican leadership in the House has, in some cases, cut FY 24 spending below the amounts agreed to in the budget agreement. As a result, most of the funding levels for programs that affect history, archives, humanities, and education are higher in the Senate bills than the House versions.

Here are the highlights from the FY 24 Senate and House appropriations bills:

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

OPERATING EXPENSES

• FY 23—$427.52 million
• Biden administration request FY 24—$443.2 million
• House Appropriations FY 24—$427.25 million (-$270,00 from FY 23)
• Senate Appropriations FY 24—$430.5 million (+$3 million from FY 23)

National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)

• FY 23—$12 million (grants)
• FY 23 Congressionally Directed Spending—$23.7 million
• FY 23 NHPRC total—$35.7 million
• Biden administration FY 24 request grants—$10 million
• House Appropriations FY 24 grants—$10 million (-$2 million from FY 23)

Note: The House bill does not include any Congressionally Directed Spending projects.

• Senate Appropriations FY 24 grants—$10 million (-$2 million from FY 23)
• Senate Appropriations FY 24 Congressionally Directed Spending—$38.4 million
• Senate Appropriations FY 24 NHPRC total—$48.4 million (+$12.7 million)

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) 

• FY 23—$207 million
• Biden administration request FY 24—$211 million
• House (passed) FY 24—$186.3 million (-$20.7 million from FY 23)
• Senate Appropriations FY 24—$207 million (no change from FY 23)

US Department of Education

US History and Civics Education Programs

• FY 23—$23 million
• Biden administration request FY 24—$73 million (+$50 million from FY 23)
• House Appropriations FY 24—$3 million (minus $20 million from eliminating American History and Civics Competitive Grants)
• Senate Appropriations FY 24—$23 million (no change from FY 23)

Title VI/Fulbright Hays International Education Programs

Total:

• FY 23—$85.6 million
• Biden administration request FY 24—$85.6 million
• House Appropriations FY 24—$35 million (-$50.6 million from FY 23)
• Senate Appropriations FY 24—$85.6 million (no change from FY 23)

Title VI (Domestic)

• FY 23—$75.3 million
• Biden administration request FY 24—$75.3 million
• House Appropriations FY 24—$35 million (-$40.3 million from FY 23)
• Senate Appropriations FY 24—$75.3 million (no change from FY 23)

Fulbright-Hays (Overseas)

• FY 23—$10.3 million
• Biden administration request FY 24—$10.3 million
• House Appropriations FY 24—(zeroed out)
• Senate Appropriations FY 24—$10.3 million (no change from FY 23)

Smithsonian Institution

• FY 23—$1.145 billion
• Biden administration request FY 24—$1.241 billion
• House (passed) FY 24—$960 million (-$184 million from FY 23)
• Senate Appropriations FY 24—$1.095 billion (-$50 million from FY 23)

Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)

• FY 23—$294.8 million
• Biden administration request FY 24—$294.8 million
• House Appropriations FY 24—$294.8 million (no change from FY 23)
• Senate Appropriations FY 24—$289.8 million (-$5 million from FY 23)

Library of Congress

• FY 23—$828.5 million
• Biden administration request FY 24—$832.1 million
• House (passed) FY 24—$843.7 million (+$15.2 million from FY 23)
• Senate Appropriations FY 24—$855.8 million (+$30.3 million from FY 23)

National Park Service

Historic Preservation Fund

• FY 23—$204.5 million
• Biden administration request FY 24—$178 million
• House (passed) FY 24—$175.4 (-$29.1 million from FY 23)
• Senate Appropriations FY 24—$195.1 million (-$9.4 million from FY 23)

National Recreation and Preservation Fund

• FY 23—$92.5 million
• Biden administration request FY 24—$95 million
• House (passed) FY 24—$80 million (-$12.5 million from FY 23)
• Senate Appropriations FY 24—$93.4 million (+$900,000 from FY 23)

Heritage Partnership Program

• FY 23—$29.2 million
• Biden administration request FY 24—$29 million
• House (passed) FY 24—$30.3 million (+$1.1 million from FY 23)
• Senate Appropriations FY 24—$30.8 million (+$1.6 million from FY 23)

Save America’s Treasures Program

• FY 23—$26.5 million
• Biden administration request FY 24—$20 million
• House (passed) FY 24—$26.5 million (no change from FY 23)
• Senate Appropriations FY 24—$26.5 million (no change from FY 23)

American Battlefield Protection Program

• FY 23—$20 million
• Biden administration request FY 24—$20 million
• House (passed) FY 24—$20 million (no change from FY 23)
• Senate Appropriations FY 24—$20 million (no change from FY 23)

US Semiquincentennial Commission

• FY 23—$15 million
• Biden administration request FY 24—$30 million
• House (passed) FY 24—$15 million (no change from FY 23)
• Senate Appropriations FY 24—$15 million (no change from FY 23)

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

• FY 23—$15 million
• Biden administration request FY 24—$16 million
• House (passed) FY 24—$12 million (-$4 million from FY 23)

Fiscal Year 2022 NCH Annual Report

The National Coalition for History (NCH) is a consortium of 43 organizations that advocates on federal legislative and regulatory issues. NCH comprises a diverse constituency not just professional historians, but archivists, independent researchers, teachers, students, documentary editors, preservationists, genealogists, political scientists, museum professionals and other stakeholders. NCH also provides member organizations with news and analysis about how funding and policy decisions made in Washington affect their historical work and institutional interests. Beyond lobbying and issue expertise, because of my experience as long-time executive director of the coalition, I provide institutional memory and context as we seek to address the many challenges facing the profession.

An analysis of the fiscal year (FY) 2023 federal budget for history, archives, education, and preservation agencies and programs is found in a separate section at the end of this report, along with charts breaking down funding for FY 23 and a three-year historical comparison.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA): The furor over former President Trump’s handling of classified documents has probably drawn more attention to the agency than at any time in its existence. In August, I was quoted in two New York Times articles on the Presidential Records Act and its application in the current situation. I was also interviewed on C-SPAN. This has obviously given NCH a great deal of exposure on a national level.

We have also been involved in other major issues concerning NARA.

• Earlier this year, NCH submitted testimony to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees urging a major increase in NARA’s budget for FY 23. As noted in the budget report: NARA received $427.5 million for operating expenses (OE), a $39.2 million increase, or 10 percent, from the FY 22 level of $388.3 million. $2 million is designated to preserve and make publicly available the congressional papers of former Members of the House and Senate. The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) received $12 million in base funding, up from $7 million last year. However, the Commission received an additional $23,772,500 in congressionally earmarked projects, bringing the total up to $35,772,500. By comparison, the NHPRC only received $5.8 million in congressional earmarks in FY 22. This is by far the highest level of funding the NHPRC has received in its history.
• In August, NCH sent letters to the Senate Armed Services, Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committeessupporting the “Access to Veterans Records Act” which authorized $60 million in additional funding to NARA to eliminate the backlog of approximately 500,000 requests from veterans for their military records. The closure during the pandemic of the National Personnel Records Center, operated by NARA, created the backlog which has been exacerbated by the fact that most of the records are paper. Some of the funding would go towards digitization of those records. The Congress included the bill in the National Defense Authorization Act which President Biden signed into law in December.
• On August 3, President Biden announced the nomination of Dr. Colleen Joy Shogan to be the 11^th Archivist of the United States. Shogan would be the first political scientist and first woman to serve in the position in a non-acting capacity. NCH issued a statement in support of her nomination. At the request of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), NCH submitted questions to be asked of the nominee at her confirmation hearing. NCH also sent letters to all HSGAC members endorsing Dr. Shogan’s confirmation. Unfortunately the HSGAC deadlocked 7-7, along party lines, on sending her nomination to the Senate floor. With the Democrats holding a clear 51-49 majority in the new Congress, the White House is planning to resubmit Dr. Shogan’s nomination to the Senate. NCH will once again mobilize our member organizations to send messages of support to the Senate. It is expected that she will be confirmed.
• The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and NARA have extended the compliance deadline for a rule mandating the use of electronic records by Federal agencies. On December 23, 2022, OMB and NARA issued a new directive extending the compliance deadline to June 30, 2024. On June 28, 2019, OMB and NARA jointly issued a memorandum providing guidance on managing Federal records. In a major policy change, the memo mandated that all Federal agencies must transfer permanent records to NARA in electronic formats after December 31, 2022. NARA said it would no longer accept paper records as of that date. This change would obviously have far-reaching impacts on all users of the National Archives and place a burden on federal agencies to comply in a timely manner. To see the original memo, click here. The NCH has, for some time, been urging OMB and NARA to extend the deadline. The federal government shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic made compliance with this mandate even more unrealistic. We appreciate NARA listening to, and addressing, the concerns of their major stakeholders.
• The “Civil Rights Cold Case Investigations Support Act of 2022” (Public Law 117-222) was signed into law by President Biden in December. Because President Trump never appointed any members, passage of the law was necessary to extend the term of the Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board from four to seven years with the option to extend for an additional year, potentially extending the Review Board’s authority to January 8, 2027. In January 2019, President Trump signed into law the “Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act of 2018” (Public Law 115-426). It authorized the National Archives and Records Administration to create a collection of unsolved civil rights case files. In addition, the law established a Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board to determine which records can be released. In February 2022, President Biden appointed, and the Senate confirmed, four of the five members of the board. They are Emory University archivist Gabrielle Dudley, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Henry Klibanoff, civil rights lawyer Margaret Burnham, and UCLA Professor of History and Professor of African American Studies Dr. Brenda Stevenson. The White House is currently vetting nominees for the fifth slot on the panel. NCH facilitated submission of the nominees from the AHA, the Organization of American Historians and the Society of American Archivists to the White House Office of Personnel.
• NCH worked with stakeholders and other coalition members, most notably the Society of American Archivists and the Association for Documentary Editing, in urging the House Oversight and Reform Committee to request thatNARA place a freeze on an agreement that was being implemented to permanently transfer control of the museum at the George W. Bush Presidential Library from the agency to the Bush Presidential Library Foundation. If this precedent were to be established, other existing museums would potentially be free to seek a similar arrangement and interpret the history of an administration in ways that casts the president in the most favorable light without impartial input from historians, political scientists, archivists, and scholars. In December, an agreement was announced between NARA and the George W. Bush Library Foundation which includes amendments to ensure that the public will be presented with “a balanced presentation of the historical record.” The revised agreement would:

1. Require physical signage to distinguish between which portions of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum are run by the George W. Bush Foundation or NARA;
2. Engage historians to review changes to the permanent exhibit gallery to provide an independent perspective and a balanced presentation of the historical record; and,
3. Require NARA to submit to Congress a plan to digitize the records of the George W. Bush Library and Museum.

Civics Secures Democracy Act (CSDA)

In March 2021, bi-partisan legislation was introduced that would authorize a $5 billion investment by the federal government in K-12 US history and civics education over the next five years ($1 billion per-fiscal year). NCH has endorsed the legislation, the “Civics Secures Democracy Act (CSDA).” (HR 1814, S. 4384).

Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, the bills languished in both the House and Senate. The legislation has been rewritten to address policy concerns that have arisen, further refining the federal government’s role in the innovative programs and to identify a budget “offset” to pay for them. The CSDA will be reintroduced when the new Congress convenes in January.

Divisive Concepts

At the start of the new school year, the media began to focus again on the concept of the teaching of so-called “divisive concepts” in K-12 classrooms around the nation. In addition, restrictions are also being imposed at colleges and universities, especially state-run institutions.

NCH opposes the passage of “divisive concepts” legislation by state legislatures. Such bills are designed to limit discussion about racism, sexism, and discrimination in the classroom and/or the workplace. They endanger the academic freedom essential to all classrooms, especially those where history is the focus of discussion and debate.

NCH has created a clearinghouse on our website to provide background information and arguments prepared by organizations at the forefront of the battle against these attacks on history education. We are constantly monitoring the situation and updating the clearinghouse as we find information that is useful to our members.

NCH belongs to the Learn from History Coalition. It is a coalition of parents, educators, and other concerned Americans who are working together to combat “divisive concepts” bills and to ensure that all children can learn accurate, thorough, and fact-based history in our schools. NCH is also a member of an informal coalition formed by PEN America, to share information, coordinate advocacy and monitor developments across the country.

NCH’s Involvement in Planning for the Nation’s 250^th Anniversary Celebration

The U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission has intensified its planning to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026, hiring many new staff. NCH is a member of the USA 250 steering committee convened by the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) that is providing advice to the commission.

Summary of History, Archival, Education and Preservation Funding in the FY 23 Budget

President Biden has signed into law (Public Law 117-264) an omnibus appropriations bill which will fund the federal government for the last nine months of fiscal year (FY) 2023.

The numbers show a general upward trend. While most agencies received modest increases, some programs received their first major funding boosts in some time. These include the National Archives, National Historical Publications and Records Commission, American History and Civics grants at the US Department of Education, and the Historic Preservation Fund at the National Park Service.

• The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) received $427.5 million for operating expenses (OE), a $39.2 million increase, or 10 percent, from the FY 22 level of $388.3 million. $2 million is designated to preserve and make publicly available the congressional papers of former Members of the House and Senate.
• The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) received $12 million in base funding, up from $7 million last year. However, the Commission received an additional $23,772,500 in congressionally earmarked projects, bringing the total up to $35,772,500. By comparison, the NHPRC only received $5.8 million in congressional earmarks in FY 22. This is by far the highest level of funding the NHPRC has received in its history.
• The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) received $207 million, a $27 million increase from the FY 23 level of $180 million.
• K-12 history and civics programs at the Department of Education: The Presidential and Congressional Academies for American History and Civics were level funded at $3 million. However, the American History and Civics grants program received $20 million up dramatically from $4.75 million in FY 22. The FY 23 total of $23 million marks the highest amount the two programs have received since their establishment.
• The Title VI/Fulbright-Hays International Education programs received small increases. Title VI (domestic programs) was increased by $3.5 million from $71.8 million to $75.3 million. Fulbright-Hays (overseas programs) only received a $500,000 increase, up from $9.8 million to $10.3 million. Together the programs received $85.6 million, up $4 million from $81.6 million last year.
• The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) received a $26.8 million funding boost to $294.8 million. Library Programs increased by $13.6 million to a level of $211 million, and Museum Programs increased by $7 million up to $47.4 million.
• The National Park Services’ FY 23 budget includes $204.5 million for the Historic Preservation Fund, an increase of $32 million above the FY 22 level. Within this amount, the bill includes $62 million for State and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices, $30 million for competitive grants to preserve the sites and stories of underrepresented community civil rights, and $11 million for grants to Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The bill includes $26.5 million for the Save America’s Treasures competitive grant program for the preservation of nationally significant sites, structures, and artifacts. The bill includes $29.2 million for the Heritage Partnership Program and provides $12.5 million for competitive historic preservation grants to revitalize properties of national, State, and local significance in rural areas. The American Battlefield Protection Program’s budget was level funded at $20 million. The bill allocates $15 million, up from $8 million last year, to support the ongoing work of the US Semiquincentennial Commission. The bill provides $10 million for a new Semiquincentennial Preservation Grants program to support the restoration of sites that honor the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding, including Revolutionary War monuments.
• The Library of Congress received $828.5 million, up from $794 million in FY 22.
• The Smithsonian Institution’s budget was increased by $82 million, up to $1.144 billion. The Salaries and Expenses budget is $893 million, and the Facilities Capital budget is $251 million.
• The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars received $15 million, level funded from last year.

It was a busy year for the National Coalition for History (NCH) as this annual report details. Congress focused its attention this year on the President’s infrastructure and social programs bills and COVID-related issues. As a result, final action on the fiscal year (FY) 2022 budget has been pushed back to mid-February.

Fiscal Year 2022 Budget Status

In May, the Biden administration released its proposed federal budget for FY 22. The House of Representatives passed all its FY 22 budget bills by the August recess. However, the Senate failed to act on any funding bills. That necessitated the adoption of a series of continuing resolutions (CRs) to keep the federal government operating after the FY 21 budget expired on September 30. The current CR keeps the government operating until February 18. The Senate Appropriations Committee released draft versions of FY 22 agency and program budgets in October. However, these may not reflect the final numbers. The attached chart details how programs of interest to our community fared. It includes the Biden proposed budget for FY22, the House-passed funding levels, the Senate draft numbers and compares them with the final FY21 budget. In general, archival and education programs will be level funded or receive small to moderate increases.

The Biden administration has announced it will indefinitely delay the release of its proposed FY 23 budget because of the failure of Congress to pas the FY 22 budget.

NCH Initiative to Increase FY 22 Funding for the National Archives

Over the past two years, NCH has prioritized advocacy in support of increased funding for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) funding. If the House and Senate numbers are any indication of the outcome, NARA would see its first significant increase (seven percent) in many years. The Biden administration, the House and the Senate are all proposing $403.6 million for NARA’s operating expenses (OE) budget in FY 22. In addition, the budget for the NHPRC would increase 46 percent, from $6.5 million to $9.5 million.

Unlike other federal history-related agencies and programs, the annual OE budget for NARA has remained stagnant for over a decade, even as the agency’s responsibilities have increased. In FY 21, NARA received $377 million, an $18 million increase over the FY 20 level of $359 million. However, that increase is misleading since the $18 million was earmarked for one-time expenses NARA incurred as part of the Biden presidential transition. In reality, NARA’s FY 21 budget was flat lined at $359 million.

On May 21, NCH submitted testimony for the record to the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government (FSGG). We requested $433 million for NARA’s FY 22 OE budget and doubling the NHPRC budget up to $13.5 million. NCH submitted identical testimony to the Senate FSGG Appropriations Subcommittee.

This year, we once again collaborated with Congressmen John Larson (D-CT), Don Young (R-AK), and Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) to seek support for additional funding in the FY 22 budget for NARA and the NHPRC. They circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter to their fellow representatives urging them to show their support for NARA and the NHPRC. This year we garnered forty-one signatures versus twenty-six last year. A “Dear Colleague” letter sponsored by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Daniel Sullivan (R-AK) was circulated in the Senate which garnered the support of nineteen senators.

K-12 History and Civics Education

Legislation has been reintroduced that would authorize a multi-billion-dollar investment by the federal government in K-12 history and civics education. The sponsors in the US House of Representatives are Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) and Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR). The lead sponsors in the US Senate are Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). NCH has endorsed the bill which has been renamed the “Civics Secures Democracy Act. (HR 1814, S. 879).”  The legislation:

• Authorizes $1 billion in spending per-year over the next six fiscal years for grants to states, institutions of higher education, qualified non-profits, and researchers.
• Establishes new grant programs for state and local education agencies to strengthen and improve their approach to civic and history education.
• Provides funding for non-profit entities to develop or expand access to evidence-based curricula, instructional models, and other educational programs to enhance student knowledge and achievement in civics and history.
• Provides grants to higher education institutions to assist in developing and implementing programs to train elementary and secondary school teachers in methods for instructing and engaging students in civics and history.
• Specifically prohibits use of the funds for the development of any national curriculum in American history or civic education.

Unrelated to the CSDA, in April the U.S. Department of Education issued a proposed set of priorities the agency would use in evaluating applications for the small existing American History and Civics academies and national grants programs. One of the priorities was focused on “the importance of including, in the teaching and learning of our country’s history, both the consequences of slavery, and the significant contributions of Black Americans to our society.” While well intentioned, the proposed priorities incited a harsh reaction on the right in Congress. Senate Minority Leader McConnell sent a letter, signed by 38 Republican senators, to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona requesting the withdrawal of the Department’s “Proposed Priorities” on American history and civics education.

In July, the Education Department issued a revised request for applications in response to overwhelming public opposition. The notice eliminated references to the New York Times’ “1619 Project” and scholar Ibram Kendi. Moreover, while emphasizing the importance of culturally responsive curricula and media literacy, the proposal clarified, “applicants are not required to address these priorities, and earn no additional points and gain no competitive advantage in the grant competition for addressing these priorities.”

The unintended consequence of the Department of Education’s proposed priorities was to derail momentum for the CSDA despite the fact the two are unrelated. The lead Republicans on the bill, Representative Tom Cole (R-OK) and Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) were pressured by their GOP colleagues to withdraw their co-sponsorship of the bill. While they chose not to do so, the original bill is in the process of being rewritten to address policy concerns that have been raised and to identify a budget “offset” to pay for the new programs. As a result, our advocacy efforts on the CSDA have been put on hold pending reintroduction of a revised bill.

NCH Statement in Opposition to “Divisive Concepts” Legislation

On May 20, NCH issued a statement opposing “Divisive Concepts” legislation. Legislation currently under consideration by numerous state legislatures around the country menaces the academic freedom essential to all classrooms, especially those where history is the focus of discussion and debate. Such bills have been introduced in twenty-nine states and are designed to limit discussion about racism, sexism, and discrimination in the classroom and/or the workplace. What is especially pernicious about these bills is that they masquerade as legislation defending free speech, but in fact have been purposely designed to curb consideration of subjects controversial and in any way critical of American society and culture.

NCH has joined the Learn from History Coalition. Organized by Stand for Children, Learn from History is a coalition of parents, educators, and other concerned Americans who are working together to combat “divisive concepts” bills and to ensure that all children can learn accurate, thorough, and fact-based history in our schools.

I prepared a presentation, delivered by Jim Grossman, at the 2022 AHA Annual Meeting session providing advocacy techniques and responses to discredit “Critical Race Theory” and “Divisive Concepts” disinformation at the local level.

Civil Rights Cold Case Collection Act

In January 2019, President Trump signed into law the “Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act of 2018” (Public Law 115-426). It authorizes the National Archives and Records Administration to create a collection of unsolved civil rights case files. In addition, the law establishes a Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board to determine which records can be released to the public.

The law delineates the appointment process for five individuals to serve on the review board, sets timelines for appointments, names groups qualified to recommend appointments, and the qualifications required for members of the review board. It designates the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, Society of American Archivists and American Bar Association as groups to be consulted in the nomination process. NCH facilitated the submission of potential nominees to the White House on behalf of AHA, OAH and SAA.

President Trump did not name anyone to the board before the end of his term. However, the Biden administration has nominated four of the five members of the review board, and they are awaiting Senate confirmation. They are Emory University archivist Gabrielle Dudley, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Henry Klibanoff, civil rights lawyer Margaret Burnham, and UCLA Professor of History and Professor of African American Studies Dr. Brenda Stevenson.

NCH’s Involvement in Planning for the Nation’s 250th Anniversary Celebration

The U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission has intensified its planning to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026, hiring many new staff. NCH is a member of the USA 250 steering committee convened by the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) that is providing advice to the commission.

Reauthorization of the Title VI/Fulbright-Hays International Education Programs

NCH has long been involved in advocacy efforts led by the Coalition for International Education to reauthorize these programs at the Department of Education. Bipartisan stand-alone Title VI reauthorization bills in the House and Senate were introduced this year, both entitled the “Advancing International and Foreign Language Education Act.”

The bill was included in a new, multipurpose “U.S. Innovation and Competition Act” (USICA), a compilation of legislation from numerous Senate committees aimed at strengthening our nation’s abilities to successfully compete on the global stage. The Senate USICA bill’s authorization is the largest in Title VI history. It provides $208 million for FY 22 and “such sums as may be necessary for each of the 5 succeeding fiscal years.” The bill passed the Senate with bipartisan support in June.

Despite the pandemic, 2020 was a busy year for the National Coalition for History (NCH). We continued to advocate for robust fiscal year (FY) 21 funding for federal agencies. We also provided updated information to our members on how to access federal agency resources and funding opportunities during the COVID-19 shutdown.

Already in 2021, NCH has weighed in on two events which occurred during the waning days of the Trump administration. NCH signed onto two AHA public statements. The first condemned the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The second criticized a report issued by the 1776 Commission that was appointed by President Trump which extolled an extremely conservative assessment of the teaching of US History. On his first day in office, President Biden issued an executive order disbanding the 1776 Commission and the report it issued has been removed from the White House’s website.

Presidential Transition

NCH recently sent a memorandum to President-elect Biden’s transition team. Our comments focused solely on the dire need to provide funding for the National Archives and Records Administration. Below is a summary:

The National Archives and Records Administration has reached an inflection point. For too long it has been neglected and underfunded. As the quantity of records increases exponentially, NARA will reach a point at which it will have difficulty dealing with federal records generated each year, let alone tackling the massive backlog of older, historically important paper records that should be digitized. Backlogs in declassification and the processing of records at presidential libraries will also increase. Perhaps most importantly, the quality and quantity of services provided to our citizens will deteriorate. The Biden administration must halt this decline by providing the resources necessary to restore this repository of our nation’s past and to ensure its future.

We stressed the need for the Biden administration to recommit to openness and transparency, to protect presidential records during the transition, improvements in customer service and employee morale, restoration of research hours, and investments in infrastructure.

FY 21 Federal Funding

President Trump has signed into law an omnibus appropriations bill which will fund the federal government for the remainder of fiscal year 2021. It includes the budget for FY 21 and compares it with FY 20 and President Trump’s original FY 21 budget request.

When viewed from that time frame, the numbers show a general upward trend, except for the National Archives (see explanation below). Across the board, history, archival and education programs were either level funded or received small increases. This should be considered a major victory, since the president had proposed eliminating the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and other programs.

Summary of History, Archival, Education and Preservation Funding in FY 21 Budget

• The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) received $377 million for operating expenses (OE), an $18 million increase from the FY 20 level of $359 million. However, the bill allocates $18 million for NARA as an offset to perform its duties related to the presidential transition. So, it is a wash and NARA’s OE budget remains the same. $2 million is designated to fund the Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board which has languished because of a lack of funding. And $9.2 million is allocated for NARA to continue its records digitization initiative.
• The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), which the president and Senate had targeted for elimination, received level funding of $6.5 million. NCH and its member organizations engaged in a vigorous advocacy campaign to save the NHPRC.
• The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) received $167.5 million, a $5 million increase from the FY 20 level. The Trump administration had sought to eliminate the NEH in its FY 21 request to Congress.
• K-12 history and civics programs at the Department of Education: Despite President Trump’s threat to eliminate them, federal K-12 history and civics programs were given slight increases in funding. The Presidential and Congressional Academies for American History and Civics received $2 million up from $1.8 million last year. The American History and Civics grants program received $3.25 million, up from $3 million in FY 20. The total is $5.25 million up from $4.8 million.
• The Title VI/Fulbright-Hays International Education programs received modest increases. Title VI (domestic programs) was increased from $68 million to $69.3 million. Fulbright-Hays (overseas programs) was increased by $800,000, up to $8.8 million. Together the programs received $78.1 million. Both programs had been targeted for elimination by the administration.
• The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) received a $5 million funding boost to $257 million. Library Programs received $197.5 million and Museum Programs increased by $2 million up to $40.5 million. This is another agency the president had targeted for elimination.
• The National Park Services’ Historic Preservation Fund will receive $144.3 million this fiscal year, a substantial $25.6 million increase over FY 20. Within this amount $55.7 million is provided for grants to States and $15 million is provided for grants to Tribes. The bill also includes $21.1 million for competitive grantsto document, interpret, and preserve historical sites associated with the Civil Rights Movement. The bill includes $10 million for competitive grants to Historically Black Colleges and Universities and $25 million for the Save America’s Treasures competitive grant program for the preservation of nationally significant sites, structures, and artifacts. The bill includes $ 23.8 million for the Heritage Partnership Program and provides $7.5 million for competitive preservation grants to revitalize historic properties of national, State, and local significance. The American Battlefield Protection Program saw its budget double from $10 million to $20 million. The Interior bill allocates $8 million to support the ongoing work of the US Semiquincentennial Commission and creates a new $10 million Semiquincentennial grant program to support restoration of State-owned historic sites and structures that honor and interpret the country’s founding, including Revolutionary War battle and commemorative monuments. The commission continues its task of preparing for the commemoration in 2026 of the 250^th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
• The Library of Congress received a $32 million increase up to $757.3 million for FY 21.
• The Smithsonian Institution’s budget was reduced by $15.3 million to $1.032 billion. There was a shift of priorities with the Salaries and Expenses budget being increased by $24.4 million ($818 million total) and a reduction of $39.7 million ($214 million total) in the Facilities Capital budget.
• The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars received $14 million, level funding from last year.

NCH Initiative to Increase FY 21 Funding for the National Archives

Unlike other federal archival and history-related agencies and programs, the annual Operating Expenses (OE) budget for the National Archives has been on a downward trend for some time. In FY20, its OE budget was reduced by $14 million and by $26 million over the previous three fiscal years. It has remained stagnant for over a decade, even as the agency’s responsibilities have increased. When adjusted for inflation, NARA’s budget has decreased by 10 percent since FY12.

At its meeting in January 2020, NCH’s Policy Board discussed NARA’s financial problems at great length. In response, NCH executive director Lee White devoted greater resources to advocating on behalf of the National Archives, the rationale being that other agencies such as the NEH and IMLS already have advocacy groups (e.g., National Humanities Alliance, American Alliance of Museums and American Library Association) who focus on those budgets. Other than the Coalition, NARA has no other advocacy group devoted solely to their budget and issues.  In March, the Coalition worked with Congressmen John Larson (D-CT), Don Young (R-AK), and Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) to seek support for additional funding in the FY 21 budget for NARA and the NHPRC. They circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter to their fellow representatives urging them to show their support for NARA and the NHPRC. In March, the Coalition submitted testimony on the agency’s FY 21 budget to the Senate Appropriations Committee

In addition to placing a greater emphasis on NARA’s OE budget, the Coalition continued to advocate for NHPRC funding. The Trump administration has proposed eliminating the NHPRC each of the past four fiscal years. However, NCH’s advocacy has staved off elimination once again in FY 21. NARA staff credits the Coalition’s lobbying with ensuring the survival of the NHPRC.

We are assisting AHA’s working group to proactively identify problem areas with NARA. The Coalition is also working with a similar group within the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR).

For the first time, the National Archives was one of the funding priorities during the annual Humanities Advocacy Day held in March in coordination with the National Humanities Alliance.

We had arranged over 65 visits to Capitol Hill for OAH members to advocate for NARA funding during their annual meeting the first week of April, which was unfortunately cancelled because of the pandemic.

Congressional History Caucus

Since congressional caucuses must be renewed with each new session of Congress, NCH will be working with co-chairs Representatives John Larson (D-CT), Tom Cole (R-OK) and Bill Pascrell to re-establish the Congressional History Caucus. It had 35 members at the end of the last Congress. With the arrival of many new House members, we are hopeful we can improve on that number.

K-12 History and Civics Education Funding Initiative

Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and John Cornyn (R-TX) have introduced the “Educating for Democracy Act of 2020.” It is the companion bill to one introduced in September by Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Congressman Tom Cole (R-OK) which will significantly increase federal financial support for history and civics education.

The legislation authorizes $1 billion in spending each year over the next five fiscal years for grants to states, non-profits, institutions of higher education and researchers. The measure establishes new grant programs for state and local education agencies to strengthen and improve their approach to civic and history education. The bill provides funding for non-profit entities to develop or expand access to evidence-based curricula, instructional models, and other educational programs to enhance student knowledge and achievement in civics and history. Grants would be provided to higher education institutions to assist in developing and implementing programs to train elementary and secondary school teachers in methods for instructing and engaging students in civics and history.

 Legislation to Address Handling of Presidential Records During Transition

Following reports that the outgoing Trump administration is destroying presidential records and ignoring the law when using non-official electronic devices to conduct official business, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) introduced the Promoting Accountability and Security in Transition (PAST) Act, to clarify and enhance existing law with regards to presidential transition and presidential records. Congressman Mike Quigley (IL-05) introduced the companion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives. NCH was consulted during the drafting of the legislation and has endorsed the bill. While it did not pass, it is expected the bill will be reintroduced in the new session of Congress.

NCH Opposes Decision to Close National Archives Seattle Records Center

Earlier this year, NCH sent a letter to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) opposing the closure and eventual sale of NARA’s records facility in Seattle, Washington. We urged OMB to reopen the review process since no opportunity was provided for public comment before the decision to sell the property was made. OMB ratified a recommendation to sell the Seattle property that was made by the Public Buildings Reform Board, a federal advisory committee tasked by Congress to identify “high value” federal properties to be put up for sale.

The Coalition joined the AHA, OAH, Council of State Archivists, and Society of American Archivists in opposing the sale. The sale is also being opposed by the congressional delegations of the States of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. We continue to work with AHA on this issue. We are hopeful that the Biden administration will reconsider the decision. In addition, the Attorney General of Washington State has filed a lawsuit against the federal government over the matter.

In report language accompanying NARA’s FY 21 budget, congressional appropriators also expressed their displeasure with the proposed closing. They instructed NARA to report back to Congress in 180 days with a “report on the feasibility of digitization and/or co-location of NARA materials in an existing or planned facility, the amount of funding that would be necessary, and any potential barriers to colocation.”

American Women’s History Museum and National Museum of the American Latino

In September, NCH endorsed the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum Act (S. 959), legislation to establish an American Museum of Women’s History (AMWH) as part of the Smithsonian Institution.

The bill was included in the FY 21 omnibus budget package along with legislation authorizing the creation of a Latino museum. The Smithsonian now begins the challenging prospect of simultaneously raising the funds needed to build both the National Museum of the American Latino and the American Women’s History Museum. Fifty percent of the cost must be raised privately with the remaining half coming from federal funds. The funding bill includes $6 million each to the museums to begin the process.

In addition, Congress expressed its intent that the location of both museums be “on or near” the National Mall which has limited vacant space available.

Civil Rights Cold Case Collection Act

In January 2019, President Trump signed into law the “Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-426). It authorizes the National Archives and Records

Administration to create a collection of unsolved civil rights case files. In addition, the law establishes a Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board to determine which records can be released to the public.

The law delineates the appointment process for five individuals to serve on the review board, sets timelines for appointments, names groups qualified to recommend appointments, and the qualifications required for members of the review board. It designates the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, Society of American Archivists and American Bar Association as groups to be consulted in the nomination process. This past spring, NCH facilitated the submission of potential nominees to the White House on behalf of AHA, OAH and SAA. However, in late summer the White House informed us they wanted “additional names,” while refusing to specify reasons as to why the original pool of applicants was not sufficient. AHA submitted the name of one individual to replace a previous nominee who had withdrawn from consideration.

The administration did not name anyone to the board before the end of Trump’s term. We will be following up with the Biden administration to urge them to appoint members and begin the long-delayed work of the review board.

NCH Involvement in Effort to Plan the Nation’s 250th Anniversary Celebration

The U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission to continues its planning for the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026.  NCH has been playing an active role as a resource to the Commission. The American Battlefield Trust, a long-time member of NCH, is managing the day-to-day operations of the commission. NCH is a member of the USA 250 steering committee convened by the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) that is providing advice to the commission.

Reauthorization of the Title VI/Fulbright-Hays Programs

NCH has been involved in an advocacy effort led by the Coalition for International Education to reauthorize these programs at the Department of Education. The “Advancing International and Foreign Language Education Act” (HR 2562) would support foreign language and international education programs at colleges and universities. Unfortunately, the bill did not pass during this session of Congress. Supporters will reintroduce the legislation in the new session to authorize funding for Title VI programs at $150 million. By comparison, this fiscal year these programs only received $78.1 million.

Use of Altered Photo in National Archives Exhibit

In January 2020, NCH sent a letter to Archivist of the United States David Ferriero criticizing the use of an altered photo of the 2017 Women’s March on Washington in the National Archives and Records Administration’s exhibition, “Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote.” As first reported in the Washington Post, the photo was altered to blur marcher’s signs criticizing President Trump. Signs including references to female anatomy were also blurred. Our letter urged NARA to review its policies and procedures that allowed this incident to occur and to take the necessary steps to ensure this does not reoccur.  In response to overwhelming public criticism, NARA quickly reversed course and issued an apology. The National Archives has removed the photo and replaced it with the original.

Statement Opposing Targeting of Historical and Cultural Sites

In January 2020, the Coalition issued a statement condemning the targeting of historical and cultural heritage sites as a tactical option in wartime or peacetime.

1. FY 2020 Federal Budget

On December 20, President Trump signed into law two bills (Public Laws 116-93 and 116-94) which fund the federal government for the remainder of fiscal year 2020. Congress had already passed funding bills for some federal agencies by the start of the fiscal year on October 1, 2019.

Click here to access a chart showing how programs of interest to our community fared. It includes the budget for FY20 and compares it with FY19 and President Trump’s original FY 20 budget request. Click here to see a second chart that provides funding trends over the past three fiscal years to give some historical perspective.

When viewed from that time frame, the numbers show a general upward trend, with the exception of the National Archives. Across the board, history, archival and education programs were either level funded or received small increases. This should be considered a major victory, since the president had proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and other programs.

Here are the highlights:

• The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) received $359 million for operating expenses (OE), a $14 million reduction from FY 19. Two years ago, NARA’s OE budget was $385 million. NCH will be focusing its advocacy efforts in 2020 on reversing this trend. $22 million of NARA’s OE budget is earmarked for a project to increase digitization capabilities at Archives II. $2 million is designated to fund the Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board which has languished because of a lack of funding.
• The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), which the president had targeted for elimination, received a $500,000 increase up to $6.5 million.
• The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) received $162.5 million, a $7.5 million increase from the FY 19 level of $155 million. The Trump administration had sought to eliminate the NEH in its FY 20 request to Congress.
• K-12 history and civics programs at the Department of Education: Despite President Trump’s threat to eliminate them, federal K-12 history and civics programs were level funded. The Presidential and Congressional Academies for American History and Civics received $1.8 million and the American History and Civics grants program received $3 million, for a total of $4.8 million.
• The Title VI/Fulbright-Hays International Education programs received modest increases. Title VI (domestic programs) was increased from $65 million to $68 million. Fulbright-Hays (overseas programs) was increased by $1 million, up to $8 million. Together the programs received $76 million. While $4 million is not a significant amount, it does mark the first time these programs have received any increase in almost a decade. Both programs had been targeted for elimination by the administration.
• The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) received a $10 million funding boost up to $252 million. Library Programs were increased by $6.2 million ($195.4 million total) and Museum Programs by $3.8 million ($38.5 million total). This is another agency the president had targeted for elimination.
• The National Park Services’ Historic Preservation Fund will receive $118.6 million this fiscal year, a $16 million increase over FY 19. Within this amount $52.6 million is provided for grants to States and $13.7 million is provided for grants to Tribes. The bill also includes $18 million for competitive grants to document, interpret, and preserve historical sites associated with the Civil Rights Movement. The bill includes $10 million for competitive grants to Historically Black Colleges and Universities and $16 million for the Save America’s Treasures competitive grant program for the preservation of nationally significant sites, structures, and artifacts. The bill includes $21.9 million for the Heritage Partnership Program and provides $7.5 million for preservation grants to revitalize historic properties of national, State, and local significance in order to restore, protect, and foster economic development of rural villages and downtown areas. The American Battlefield Protection Program received a $3 million increase up to a level of $13 million. The Interior bill allocates $3.3 million to the US Semiquincentennial Commission which is finalizing its report to the president making recommendations on commemorating the United States 250th anniversary in 2026.
• The Library of Congress received a $28.9 million increase up to $725 million for FY 20.
• The Smithsonian Institution received a $4 million increase up to $1.047 billion. There was a shift of priorities with the Salaries and Expenses budget increased by $53.7 million ($793.6 million total) and a reduction of $49.8 million (253.7 million total) in the Facilities Capital budget.
• The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars received $14 million, a $2 million increase from last year.

2. National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) Reauthorization

On June 12, the House Oversight and Reform Committee cleared a bill (HR 2978) to reauthorize the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). The legislation authorizes $15 million annually for the NHPRC from FY 20 to FY 25. The NHPRC’s most recent authorization expired at the end of FY 2009, and was at a level of $10 million. Funding can be provided to an agency without an authorization, however having an authorized level makes it easier to advocate for a set amount every budget cycle. The House has not yet considered the legislation and a comparable bill has not been introduced in the Senate.

3. OMB/NARA Issue New Mandate on the Use of Electronic Records

In July, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and NARA jointly issued a memorandum providing guidance on managing Federal records. In a major policy change, the memo mandates that all Federal agencies must transfer permanent records to NARA in electronic formats after December 31, 2022. In other words, NARA will no longer accept paper records as of that date. This change will obviously have far-reaching impacts on all users of the National Archives. To see the memo, click here.

4. National Assessment of K-12 History and Civics Education

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education (ED), has awarded a $650,000 cooperative agreement to the civics education group iCivics to lead a coalition of experts in assessing the state of, and best practices in, the teaching of American history, civics, and government in K-12 education.

Educating for American Democracy: A Roadmap for Excellence in History and Civics Education for All Learners brings together more than 100 leading academics and practitioners in education, civics, history, and political science for convenings at Louisiana State University and Arizona State University to evaluate the current state of history and civics curricula across the country.

This roadmap and accompanying report on the convenings’ findings will be released prior to a national forum in September 2020 in Washington, D.C., co-hosted by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History and the National Archives and Records Administration Foundation. The National Coalition for History is serving on the steering committee for the effort. NCH is being represented on the panel by Lawrence Paska, the executive director of the National Council on the Social Studies.

5. Civil Rights Cold Case Collection Act

In January 2019, President Trump signed into law the “Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-426). It authorizes the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to create a collection of unsolved civil rights case files. In addition, the law establishes a Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board to determine which records can be released to the public.

The law delineates the appointment process for five individuals to serve on the review board, sets timelines for appointments, names groups qualified to recommend appointments, and the qualifications required for members of the review board. It designates the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, Society of American Archivists and American Bar Association as groups to be consulted in the nomination process. This past spring, NCH facilitated the submission of potential nominees to the White House on behalf of AHA, OAH and SAA. The appointments and convening of the panel have been held up because no funding was provided in the FY 19 budget. However, the FY 20 NARA budget includes $2 million to fund the board’s work. The expectation is now that funding has been provided appointments to the board will follow.

6. NCH Involvement in Effort to Plan the Nation’s 250th Anniversary Celebration

In July 2016, Congress passed legislation (Public Law 114-196) establishing the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission to begin planning for the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026. The 33-member body is comprised of 8 Members of Congress, 16 private citizens, and 9 federal officials. One academic historian and two political scientists are included among the private citizen appointees. The Department of the Interior selected the American Battlefield Trust as the nonprofit organization that will serve as secretariat and administrator of the Commission. The Commission has met multiple times this year and is in the final stages of preparing its report to the president which is due by the end of 2019. The FY 20 Interior Appropriations bill allocates $3.3 million to the commission.

NCH has been playing an active role as a resource to the Commission. The American Battlefield Trust is a long-time member of NCH and many NCH organizations are assisting their efforts. NCH is a member of a USA 250 steering committee convened by the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) that is providing advice to the commission.

7. Congressional History Caucus

We currently have 37 members in the House caucus. The caucus must be recertified with each new Congress. Unfortunately, the caucus was not re-formed until this summer. More information on the History Caucus can be found at https://historycoalition.org/congressional-history-caucus.

8. Disposition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for Detainee Records

On December 11, 2019, the Archivist of the United States approved a request for disposition authority from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for Detainee Records. This schedule was originally proposed to NARA on October 26, 2015. NARA published notice of the pending schedule in the Federal Register on July 14, 2017.

In 2017, ICE requested that NARA approve a records retention schedule that would have allowed them to destroy detainee records in 11 categories including solitary confinement, assault, sexual abuse and deaths while in custody. NARA initially recommended the approval of ICE’s request, which sparked outrage during the public comment period with a broad range of opponents arguing the records clearly had permanent historical value. NARA agreed to suspend its initial recommendation and to review the records retention schedule with ICE to determine what if any records could be destroyed.

This year, NARA provided a second period for public comment on the ICE proposed records schedule. Most who commented on individual items objected to records related to detainee deaths and sexual assault and abuse cases having temporary status. In response, NARA recommended one set of Death Review Files, those created by the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), for permanent retention. NARA did not change its recommendation that records related to allegations of sexual assault and abuses have a temporary disposition, but did increase the recommended retention period to 25 years.

9. Obama Presidential Library

In February, an article in the New York Times highlighting a new “virtual model” for the Barack Obama Presidential Library triggered a host of new questions concerning accessibility, preservation and storage of presidential records by the National Archives. In response, the National Archives and the Obama Foundation posted more detailed information on their websites to address issues raised in the article.

In May 2017, the National Archives and the Obama Foundation announced a new plan to make President Obama’s presidential library all digital. Few details were provided at the time save for a press release from NARA and a brief mention of the library in the announcement of the plans for the Obama Presidential Center by the Obama Foundation. NCH has been in contact with the Obama Foundation to express our concerns that none of the major historical organizations which make up the coalition were consulted in advance of the decision not to build a traditional physical library.

On May 16, Columbia University and the Obama Foundation announced that the Columbia Center for Oral History Research has been selected to produce the official oral history of Barack Obama’s presidency. Starting this summer and over the next five years, the Obama Presidency Oral History Project will conduct interviews with some 400 people, including senior leaders and policy makers within the administration, as well as elected officials, campaign staff, journalists, and other key figures—Republican and Democrat—outside the White House.

10. Reauthorization of the Title VI/Fulbright-Hays Programs

NCH has been involved in an advocacy effort led by the Coalition for International Education to reauthorize these programs at the Department of Education. The “Advancing International and Foreign Language Education Act” (HR 2562) would robustly support foreign language and international education programs at colleges and universities. The legislation would authorize funding for Title VI programs at $125 million in FY20 and index the amount to inflation for each of the successive four fiscal years. By comparison this fiscal year these programs only received $76 million.

This report details the National Coalition for History’s accomplishments in 2018. It has been an extremely successful and productive year for the coalition, despite continuing internal financial challenges.

Normally, the annual report begins with a look back. However, with the Democrats taking control of the House in January, the 116th Congress may have major implications for our constituencies. The Democrats gained 39 seats in November and hold a 235-199 margin with one race yet to be decided. In addition a slew of Republicans retired so there will be large scale reshuffling on the minority side as well. The Republicans gained two Senate seats and hold a 53-47 seat majority.

While many expected dire cuts to federal funding for history in the 115th Congress, that did not occur. Congressional Republicans ignored President Trump’s budget requests calling for the elimination of agencies and programs such as the National Endowment for the Humanities and Institute for Museum and Library Services, National Historical Publications and Records Commission and funding for international, history and civics education. Most programs of interest received level funding and in some cases small increases. Traditionally, Democrats have been somewhat more generous in funding history and archival programs, but no one should expect a sudden windfall.

The new Congress offers both challenges and opportunities for the National Coalition for History. In the House, obviously there will be new chairmen and chairwomen and ranking members on every committee. This also means a great deal of turnover in personal and committee staff which means new relationships have to be created.

As noted below, while the Congressional History Caucus that we helped found is at an all-time high of 41-members, recruitment must start all over again since caucuses need to be recertified at the beginning of each new Congress.

Attendance at this year’s Humanities Advocacy Day will be even more important since we will likely be dealing with new staff that aren’t familiar with our programs. The National Humanities Alliance has opened registration for its annual Advocacy Day, to be held March 10-12 in Washington, D.C.

• FY19 Federal Funding

Outcome:  Ongoing

NCH’s primary advocacy focus remains ensuring sustained and robust funding for those federal agencies and programs that have the greatest impact on historians and other stakeholders.

Congress approved five of twelve appropriations bills by the time the 2019 fiscal year began on October 1. While that might not seem like a major accomplishment, it had not been accomplished in 22 years.

Instead of passing a massive omnibus bill funding the entire federal government, Congress this year chose to bundle agencies in smaller bills known as a “minibus.” On September 28, President Trump signed into law a minibus that combined FY 19 appropriations bills for the Defense Department, and Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies.

This minibus includes level funding for the Department of Education’s Title VI and Fulbright-Hays programs at $65.1 million and $7.1 million, respectively. It also included a major boost for the K-12 history and civics programs at the Department of Education, despite President Trump’s threat to eliminate them. The American History and Civics grants program received an over 75% increase from $1.7 million to $3 million. The Presidential and Congressional Academies for American History and Civics received level funding at $1.8 million. This marks an increase for the two programs from $3.5 million in FY 18 to $4.8 million in FY 19. Separately, the Library of Congress received a healthy funding increase from $669.8 million last year to $696.1 million in FY 19. Finally, the Institute of Museum and Library Services received a small $2 million increase up to $242 million. About three-quarters of the roughly $1.33 trillion in discretionary spending authority for FY 2019 was included in this bill.

Since the start of the 2019 fiscal year on October 1, Congress passed a series of continuing resolutions (CR) to keep the rest of the government operating. The final CR expired on December 21, 2018, for the federal agencies covered under the remaining unpassed seven appropriations bills.

As this is being written, the partial shutdown of the federal government is expected to continue until at least January when Congress reconvenes. The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the National Park Service, National Archives, National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) and Smithsonian Institution are among the agencies that have been temporarily closed.

The attached chart shows the House and Senate-passed numbers for those agencies to provide a sense of their likely funding levels. For most agencies the difference between the House and Senate levels are small or identical such as the NEH and NHPRC.

To summarize across the board, history, archival and education programs were, or likely will be, either level funded or receive small increases. This should be considered a major victory, since the president had proposed eliminating the NEH, the IMLS, the NHPRC and other programs.

• NCH Involvement in Effort to Plan the Nation’s 250th Anniversary Celebration

Outcome: Ongoing

In July 2016, Congress passed legislation (Public Law 114-196) establishing the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission to begin planning for the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026. The 33-member body is comprised of 8 Members of Congress, 16 private citizens, and 9 federal officials. One academic historian and two political scientists are included among the private citizen appointees.

The Department of the Interior last summer selected the American Battlefield Trust as the nonprofit organization that will serve as secretariat and administrator of the Commission. The American Battlefield Trust will raise funds, prepare reports, provide administrative and financial support, and house the Commission’s administrative offices.

The Commission was tasked with developing a report with recommendations to the President and Congress by the summer of 2018. However, because of the delay in selecting the American Battlefield Trust, the meeting and preparation of the report were delayed. The Commission met for the first time November 19 in Philadelphia. Note: the American Battlefield Trust was until recently known as the Civil War Trust. They changed their name to reflect their broadened mission of protecting battlefields associated with the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

NCH has been closely monitoring the situation and is poised to play an active role as a resource to the Commission. The American Battlefield Trust is a long-time member of NCH and we have already been in contact to find ways NCH and its members can be involved with the Commission. In addition, NCH recently announced its support of five history-related goals for the commemoration prepared by the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) and has been active in a task force on USA 250 convened by AASLH.

• Congressional History Caucus

Outcome: Ongoing

We currently have 41 members in the House caucus, which is an all-time high; up from the 20 members we had at the end of the last session of Congress. We recently completed a direct mailing to the staffs of targeted members which significantly increased membership. Unfortunately, the caucus needs to be recertified with each new Congress so we need to start the process all over again in January.

• Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Reauthorization Bill

Outcome: Completed

On December 19, the House of Representatives, by a vote of 331-28, passed S.3530, the “Museum and Library Services Act of 2018.” The Senate approved the bill earlier this month and it now goes to the President for his signature. The bill reauthorizes the IMLS until FY 2023.

The IMLS is the primary federal agency that funds museum and library programs across the country. The legislation contains a number of provisions specifically designed to strengthen the museum field. NCH worked closely with the American Association for State and Local History and the American Alliance for Museums in developing the legislation.

• Controversy over Department of Interior Records Disposition

Outcome: Ongoing

In November, disinformation went viral on the internet that the Department of Interior was proposing to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) the destruction of valuable historical records having to do with the Endangered Species Act, Fish and Wildlife, energy management and other important issues under the department’s jurisdiction. Conversations with senior officials at the National Archives, as well as colleagues working for major open government groups and the archival community allowed the NCH to clarify the situation for our constituents.

In December, NCH sent a letter to NARA questioning the handling of records from the Department of the Interior. NCH joined with 12 other open government and transparency groups in the letter. In addition, the letter asked NARA to make the actual records scheduled for destruction available online so they are open to public inspection and comment and obviate the need to file FOIA requests

One result of this controversy is that NCH organized a session at the AHA’s upcoming 2019 Annual Meeting to discuss with NARA’s chief records officer ways to improve the future handling of records schedules.

• NCH Urges Congress to Investigate Immigration Records Mismanagement

Outcome: Ongoing

In a July letter, NCH called on Congress to investigate claims that federal agencies with jurisdiction over enforcing immigration policy have grossly mismanaged their recordkeeping responsibilities during the recent crisis along the Nation’s southwest border. NCH sent letters to the House and Senate committees with oversight over immigration and the National Archives and Records Administration.

NCH is also closely monitoring a situation involving potential destruction of records by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Under the Federal Records Act, federal agencies routinely request permission from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to destroy routine “temporary” records. NARA then makes a determination as to whether the records have historical or permanent value which requires them to be retained permanently. NARA is required by law to seek public comment after a notice is posted in the Federal Register.

In 2017, ICE requested that NARA approve a records retention schedule that would have allowed them to destroy detainee records in 11 categories including solitary confinement, assault, sexual abuse and deaths while in custody. NARA initially recommended the approval of ICE’s request, which sparked outrage during the public comment period with a broad range of opponents arguing the records clearly had permanent historical value. NARA agreed to suspend its initial recommendation and is reviewing the records retention schedule with ICE to determine what if any records can be destroyed. There will be an additional public comment period on the records retention schedule once this finding has been made.

• Increased Public Access to Congressional Reports

Outcome: Ongoing

NCH has for many years supported legislation requiring the Government Publishing Office (GPO) to establish, maintain, and ensure the automatic updating of a free public website containing Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports, and an index, that is searchable, sortable, and downloadable. Currently, CRS reports are not easily accessible to the public.

The 2018 omnibus appropriations bill that was passed by Congress and signed by the President in May included a provision mandating that all non-confidential CRS reports be made publicly available online through a free website within 90 to 270 days of their publication. The website recently went live and is slowly ramping up to meet the legislative mandate of making all reports available to the public. https://crsreports.congress.gov/

• Oral History “Common Rule” Revisions 

Outcome: Monitoring

Revisions to the Common Rule, the set of regulations governing human subjects research, have been delayed a further six months, but with a few exceptions. The new rules were set to take effect on July 19, 2018, but have been delayed until January 21, 2019. However, during that interim period institutions will be allowed, but not required, to take advantage of three “burden-reducing” provisions in the new regulations, including the exemption of oral history work from unnecessary and invasive Institutional Review Board oversight.

• National Park Service Modified Fee Proposal

Outcome: Completed

Following extensive backlash over a proposal to significantly increase fees at several of the most popular national parks, including a letter from NCH, the National Park Service (NPS) has announced a revised plan. Instead of large increases at a small group of parks, NPS will raise fees by a more modest $5 per vehicle across the entire park system. The additional revenue will help address the backlog of maintenance and infrastructure issues NPS faces.

• NCH will continue to provide advice to, and monitor the activities of, the State Department Historical Advisory Committee, the NHPRC, the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB), the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress and other relevant federal bodies.

Outcome: Ongoing

• Working with other stakeholders, NCH will monitor the Trump administration’s approach to open government activities.

Outcome: Ongoing

NCH will continue to work towards identifying new areas in which to promote openness and transparency within the federal government while remaining vigilant for any attempts by the Trump administration to undo the progress made in this area during the Obama administration.

The executive director continued to follow the lead of OpenTheGovernment.org, the National Security Archive and other pro-transparency groups in lobbying on these issues. The records issues noted above are a prime example of what this directive entails.

• The Executive Director should continue to implement the Membership and Marketing Plan.

Outcome: Ongoing

Membership Report

1. Lead Organizations (>$8,000): There are currently four organizations in this group who contributed a total of $131,000. This is an increase of $5,000 from FY17, thanks to an increased contribution from HISTORY.
2. Sustaining Members ($4,000–$7,999): There are currently eight organizations in this category that contributed a total of $31,920. That is $4,700 reduction from FY17, due to a $2,500 reduction in History Associates’ contribution and a $2,200 reduction in the Regional Archives Consortium contribution—both due to internal changes in those organizations. Barring a recommitment by these organizations to support NCH at a level at or above $4,000, both will shift to contributing members for FY19.
3. Contributing Members ($1,000–$3,999): At the end FY18 there were 13 organizations in this category who contributed a total of $15,100, down from $16,000 in FY17.
4. Basic Members ($600): There were 19 organizations that have either contributed or indicated their commitment to pay by the end of the year. As 12/26/18 we received contributions from 10 of these 19, totaling $5,700, just over half the amount contributed last year at the basic membership level.  Within this category we definitively lost five members and gained two.  Some of the groups that paid, contributed below the minimum $600 membership threshold established by the board two years ago and this “free-rider” issue continues.

Membership Breakdown:  NCH currently has 44 members (based on expected contributions for 2018).  However, based on dues contributions received as of 12/26/18 the membership stands at 34.  Even if we receive some contributions late, this represents a troubling decline in membership at the basic membership level.

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The past year has been an extremely successful and productive one for the National Coalition for History. Long term objectives were reached such as the successful passage by Congress of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reform bill. In addition, unanticipated issues arose that required NCH interventions. These included intervening with agency officials to prevent the closure of the history office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and the successful resolution of a conflict over preventing the development of land in Princeton, New Jersey adjacent to the site of a Revolutionary War battlefield. These matters and others presented opportunities for the NCH to exercise its role as the preeminent advocacy voice for the interests of historians and other stakeholders.

Other matters of concern to the NCH such as federal funding for history-related programs are on-going. Issues such as the budget for the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission perennially remain at the core of the NCH’s mission.

Initiatives such as the Congressional Caucus and advocacy of the Commission establishing the new American Museum of Women’s History as well as the recent engagement with efforts to prepare for the USA’s 250^th Anniversary in 2026 have positioned the NCH to continue its transformation into an organization seeking the broadest possible influence in supporting the efforts of historians to bring the past’s lessons to contemporary Americans.

The NCH is not without internal challenges that exert an effect upon its ability to serve its constituents. While the Coalition is poised to do more, its income has remained essentially flat for nearly eight years while expenses continue to rise. Membership has been stagnant and dues have not been significantly raised to meet new budgetary demands.  NCH can best serve member organizations by being aggressive in attracting new members while retaining the support of organizations that are already Coalition members.

2017 NCH Policy Objectives and Review of 2016 Accomplishments

1. During the conclusion of the FY 2017 appropriations process and development of the FY’ 18 budget, NCH will lobby aggressively for sustained funding for those federal agencies and programs that have the greatest impact on the historical and archival communities.

Outcome:  Accomplished/Ongoing 

These include (but are not limited to):

• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
• National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)
• National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
• National Park Service history and preservation programs
• Title VI/Fulbright-Hays International Education programs
• Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
• Library of Congress
• Smithsonian Institution

The congressional appropriations process ground to a halt in late-September and Congress passed a short term budget continuing resolution (CR) that kept the federal government running until December 9. Before leaving for the holidays, Congress passed a second CR to keep the federal government funded and operating through April 28, 2017. Republican leaders in Congress decided they wanted to avoid a final budget battle with the Obama administration. The delay will also allow the Trump administration to have input on the budget even though it would cover only the final six months of the FY 17 fiscal year.

There were some bright spots in funding bills, especially in the House, that will be the basis of negotiations with the Senate over the final budget package. A chart summarizing the current status of the FY 17 appropriations bills of interest to the historical community is included at the end of this report.

The House passed a Financial Services and General Government FY 17 funding bill (HR 4585) that includes $6 million for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). This is an increase of $1 million from the administration’s request and what the commission received in FY 16.  If adopted this would be the NHPRC’s highest funding level since FY 2011.

The bill also contains good news for international and foreign language education.  Though the President’s FY 2017 budget request, and the comparable Senate bill, propose a $4.9 million or 69% reduction in Fulbright-Hays (overseas) funding, the House bill funds Fulbright-Hays and Title VI at their respective FY 2016 levels of $65 million for domestic and $7 million for overseas programs. NCH issued a legislative alert urging House members to support the higher funding level for the overseas program.

2. NCH will advocate to ensure federal K-12 history/civics education grants established in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) are fully funded in the U.S. Department of Education’s FY 16 and 17 budgets. 

Outcome: ongoing

In the new ESSA, two programs were specifically targeted at providing funding for history and civics education.

• 2232: Presidential and Congressional Academies for American History and Civics— Establishes competitive grant programs for nonprofit organizations to run intensive, two-to- six-week-long academies in American history, civics, and government for high school students and for teachers. Entities eligible to compete for these grants include institutions of higher education, nonprofit educational organizations, museums, libraries, or research centers with demonstrated expertise in historical methodology or the teaching of American history and civics.
• 2233: National Activities—Creates a competitive grant program for nonprofit organizations and institutions of higher education to develop and disseminate innovative approaches to offering high quality instruction in American history, civics, government and geography for underserved students. This program could be used to fund professional development for teachers.

The U.S. Department of Education awarded one grant in FY 16 for $1,751,759 which will support the grant for a three-year project period.  The awardee is the Kentucky Educational Development Cooperative, with partners including the Rendell Center for Civics and Civic Engagement and the National Constitution Center. This is the first Civics/History funding awarded under ESSA.

The House FY 17 Labor, HHS and Education appropriations bill includes funding for both the new American History and Civics grants and the American History and Civics Academies. HR 5926 provides more than the programs were slated to receive under the Every Student Succeeds Act which authorized $6.5 million for both programs. The House bill provides $6.5 million for the history and civics grants and $1.8 million for the academies. However, we still have work ahead of us since the Senate version of the funding bill didn’t include money for the grant program.

3. NCH will work with the Congressional Commission on The American Museum of Women’s History to ensure participation in the deliberative process by professional historians with experience in women’s history. 

Outcome: Completed/Ongoing

On November 16, the Congressional Commission on an American Museum of Women’s History (AMWH) submitted its much-anticipated report. Legislation creating the commission was passed by Congress in December 2014.

NCH, AHA, OAH and other historical organizations provided support to the commission throughout its deliberations and participated in a “scholar’s summit” held by the commission in January 2016. NCH will continue to monitor the situation and advocate for the museum as the focus turns back to Congress and the Trump administration’s decision on how to proceed.

The commission affirms the need for a physical national museum (known as the American Museum of Women’s History) honoring the impact and experience of women in America. The commission recommended the museum become an official part of the Smithsonian Institution and be located one of three “preferred” sites on the National Mall.

Under the commission’s plan, the Museum would be funded with a combination of public and private funds with a fundraising goal ranging from $150–$180 million from the private sector. At least 75% of capital campaign funds would need to be pledged prior to any construction. The Museum would be between 75,000–90,000 square feet in size. The commission calls for the creation of a 10-year strategic plan to develop the Museum in three phases.

To read the executive summary and full report, click here. (https://amwh.us/report/)

4. NCH Intervenes to Prevent Elimination of History Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Outcome: Unanticipated issue that arose during 2016. Accomplished Successfully

In July, NCH was made aware by the leadership of the Organization of American Historians (OAH) that the history office at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Johnson Space Center (JSC) was likely to be defunded and closed at the end of the 2016 fiscal year on September 30. One historian in the three-person office had already been terminated. This situation was especially disconcerting because of the vital work of the JSC office in preserving the oral histories of astronauts and engineers, scientists, technicians and agency managers who blazed our nation’s trail into space.

The JSC history office was the 2016 recipient of OAH’s Friend of History award. The prize “recognizes an institution or organization, or an individual working primarily outside college or university settings, for outstanding support of historical research, the public presentation of American history.”

Under the current structure, each of NASA’s eleven centers across the country has its own history office.  Each is autonomous and operates under the purview of that center’s assistant administrator. The JSC historians are not federal employees but work for a contractor; thus they could be let go without the usual restrictive federal personnel rules applying.

On August 15, NCH sent a letter to NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr. urging him to provide the funding necessary to keep the JSC office open with the resources it needs to be fully staffed and maintain the same excellent level of service to the historical community and the public it has provided in the past. The OAH and the AHA each communicated to NASA the same concerns regarding the imperative of continued funding for this work.

On September 23, NCH received a highly favorable reply from NASA’s Chief Historian William P. Barry. Stating that NCH’s “letter was both timely and impactful,” he reported that the history office was being restructured within the JSC under the management of a civil service employee and that the contractor staff was being retained with plans to add an additional person in the future. Assuring the AHA that “the attention of the very top management has been turned to the history program,” Barry told OAH president Nancy Cott that Administrator Bolden places “a high priority on having a strong history program at NASA” and that steps are being taken to strengthen the program, “including placing the office under the purview of the Chief Knowledge Officer.”

The outcome was the direct result of NCH working collaboratively with OAH, AHA and the Society for History in the Federal Government to achieve this common goal.

5. NCH Plays Vital Role in to Preserving Revolutionary War’s Princeton Battlefield. Outcome: Unanticipated issue that arose during 2016. Accomplished Successfully

On March 3, NCH joined the fight to halt destruction of a historically significant parcel of land associated with the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Princeton. In a letter to the Institute for Advanced Study’s Board of Trustees, a national coalition of historical and conservation organizations asked the Institute to halt destruction of Maxwell’s Field, one of the most significant battlefield properties in the nation.  On this site, General George Washington staged a counterattack against the British Army that led to victory in the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777. Coming on the heels of Washington’s victory against the Hessians a few days before in Trenton, historians consider the two battles to be a pivotal turning point in the Revolution. The Institute is nearby, but not affiliated with, Princeton University.

On December 12, the Institute for Advanced Study and the Civil War Trust jointly announced a plan to significantly expand the land that will be preserved adjacent to the current Princeton Battlefield State Park while enabling the Institute to construct new housing for its faculty on its campus. The National Coalition for History is a member of the “Save Princeton Coalition” which advocated for preserving this historical property.

Under the plan, the Civil War Trust, through its Campaign 1776 initiative to protect Revolutionary War battlefields, will purchase 14.85 acres of land from the Institute for $4 million, to be conveyed to the State of New Jersey as an addition to the existing Princeton Battlefield State Park. The acquisition includes approximately 2/3 of the Maxwell’s Field property, along with an additional 1.12-acre tract north of the property that has been identified by historians as part of the battlefield. The agreement will not go into effect until all necessary project approvals have been received. The target date for the transfer of the property to be sold to the Trust is the end of June 2017.

6. NCH Supported FOIA Improvement Act Signed Into Law. Outcome: Previously ongoing issue that was accomplished successfully

On June 30, President Obama signed into law the “FOIA Improvement Act of 2016” (PL 114-185). NCH supported the legislation codifying comprehensive reforms to the Freedom of Information Act that increase public access and restore a presumption of openness in the handling of federal records.

Importantly, it strengthens the “foreseeable harm” standard, which obligates federal agencies to adhere to a standard of openness: they must release information unless “the agency reasonably foresees that disclosure would harm an interest protected by an exemption” or “disclosure is prohibited by law.” The new law limits Exemption 5, the broadest of the nine exemptions to FOIA, which includes documents touching on “the deliberative process.” By placing a 25-year time limit on Exemption 5 claims by the federal government, the law opens up a new potential source of research materials to scholars.

7. NCH Advocacy in Support of Confirmation of New Librarian of Congress. Outcome: Unanticipated issue that arose during 2016. Accomplished Successfully

In July, the U.S. Senate by a vote of 74-18, confirmed Dr. Carla D. Hayden as the 14th librarian of Congress and she was sworn into office on September 14. Hayden is the first woman, and the first African American, to lead the Library of Congress. She is also the first librarian to serve in the post in 60 years and the first Librarian of Congress subject to a renewable 10-year term, which Congress imposed in 2015.

In conjunction with the American Library Association, NCH participated in an advocacy effort to urge the US Senate to expedite consideration of Dr. Hayden’s nomination and in support of her confirmation.

8. The Executive Director will work with the Congressional History Caucus co-chairs to solicit members through promotion of a “Dear Colleague” letter and in organizing a rollout event. 

Throughout the year the Executive Director will assist the Congressional History Caucus in achieving its mission of promoting history on Capitol Hill.

Outcome: Ongoing

In February 2015, the executive director met with Representative John Larson to discuss future plans for the caucus. We currently have 27 members in the House caucus, which is more than we had at the end of the last session.

Our website includes a “how-to” page to allow NCH organizations and their members to recruit Members of Congress for the caucus. We continued to promote the “Dear Colleague letter” urging representatives to join the caucus. Every House office was contacted at least once by NCH staff. NCH member organizations sent solicitations to their members urging them to contact their House member and urge them to join. The goal of holding an inaugural event this year was not met. This will continue to remain a priority in 2017.

9. NCH comments on Human Subjects Research in HHS Rule. Outcome: Ongoing.

In September 2015, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and fifteen other federal departments and agencies announced proposed revisions to the regulations for protection of human subjects in research. The comment period ended on January 6, 2016.

The draft rule specifically states that “oral history, journalism, biography, and historical scholarship activities that focus directly on the specific individuals about whom the information is collected” be explicitly excluded from “the scope of the Common Rule.”  Moreover, the recommendations acknowledged the importance and value within oral history, and historical studies more generally, to identify individual actors in history, and recognized that there already existed discipline-specific codes of ethical conduct.

The Oral History Association’s (OHA) executive director, the late Dr. Clifford Kuhn, took the lead in preparing draft comments on the proposed rule. The comments strongly endorsed the recommendation to exclude oral history from the Common Rule.  NCH used the OHA’s paper as the basis for a letter submitted to the HHS on October 30, 2015.

In June, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine issued a report recommending that Congress authorize and the president appoint an independent, national commission to examine and update the ethical, legal, and institutional frameworks governing research involving human subjects. In addition, the academies urged the executive branch to withdraw the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the “Common Rule.”

According to a November 16, 2016, article in Politico, the rule still has not been sent to OMB and it is unlikely to be completed during the dwindling days of the Obama administration. It is unclear what the incoming Trump administration’s views on the issue will be.

10. Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee. 

Outcome: Completed/Ongoing

In June 2014, Archivist of the United States David Ferriero appointed me to serve on a federal advisory panel designed to develop recommendations on how to improve implementation of the FOIA. NCH was one of only ten non-governmental appointees to the committee.

In April, the panel concluded its two-year term and submitted a series of recommendations to the Archivist.  Mr. Ferriero decided to renew the FOIA panel’s charter for an additional two years. Following conversations with NCH’s executive committee, it was decided that I would not submit my name for an additional term. Instead, we reached out to NCH organizations to encourage them to solicit nominations from qualified applicants to fill the “historian’s slot” on the advisory committee. Unfortunately, when the new panel was announced, neither one of the candidates NCH member groups had submitted were chosen. In fact, not a single historian was appointed despite the panel’s charter which mandated that one be included. I reached out to NARA staff to point out the oversight. Subsequently, Archivist Ferriero appointed Dr. James Hershberg, a Professor of History and International Affairs at the George Washington University to the panel.

11. Congress Creates Commission to Prepare For USA’s 250^th Anniversary in 2026. Outcome: Ongoing.

In July 2016, Congress passed legislation (Public Law 114-196) establishing the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission to begin planning for the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026.

Key highlights include:

• The 32-member body will be comprised of 8 Members of Congress, 16 private citizens, and 8 federal officials. Unfortunately, the law does not delineate the qualifications for the private citizen representatives who will be named by the Speaker, House Minority Leader, and the Senate Majority and Minority Leaders.
• The Commission shall develop a report with recommendations to the President and to Congress within two years of its formation.
• The Commission observes and commemorates not only the Revolution, but also the history of the United States leading into the 250th anniversary
• The Commission shall remain in existence until December 31, 2027.

NCH facilitated the submission to congressional leadership of a list qualified historians with expertise in the field to be considered for selection to the commission. NCH will continue to monitor the activities of the commission and seek opportunities for participation by historians.

12. Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) Rule Issued by NARA. 

Outcome:  Completed

On September 14, the National Archives issued a final rule, “Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI),” establishing consistent practices and procedures for safeguarding, disseminating, controlling, and marking CUI across Executive Branch departments and agencies. It went into effect November 13, 2016.

CUI is information that, while sensitive, does not meet the higher level of security restrictions needed to qualify as classified. The new rule is an attempt to provide a uniform government-wide process for managing CUI by creating four broad categories.

NCH reached out to interested parties within the coalition to solicit comment during the public comment phase of the rulemaking process. NCH signed on to group comments written by OpenTheGovernment.org (https://www.openthegovernment.org/node/4940) that were submitted to the National Archives.

13. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Reauthorization Bill. 

Outcome: Ongoing.

On September 22, the “Museum and Library Services Act of 2016” (S. 3391) was introduced in the Senate. This legislation, which NCH supports, will strengthen the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and enhance its ability to help museums serve their communities.

IMLS is the primary federal agency that funds museum programs across the country. The legislation contains a number of provisions specifically supported by the museum field. The bill did not see action this session and it will be reintroduced when the new Congress reconvenes.

14. NCH will continue to provide advice to, and monitor the activities of, the NHPRC, the State Department Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB), the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress and other relevant federal bodies. 

Outcome: Ongoing

15. Working with other stakeholders, NCH will monitor the incoming Trump administration’s approach to open government activities. 

Outcome: Ongoing

NCH will continue to work towards identifying new areas in which to promote openness and transparency within the federal government while remaining vigilant for any attempts by the Trump administration to undo the tremendous progress made in this area during the Obama administration.

The executive director continued to follow the lead of OpenTheGovernment.org, the National Security Archive and other pro-transparency groups in lobbying on these issues.

16. The Executive Director should make it a top priority to implement the Membership and Marketing Plan and provide the Executive Committee with quarterly reports on his progress. 

Outcome:  Accomplished/Ongoing

NCH dramatically expanded the frequency of communications with the full membership not just the policy board. Staff updated the infographic to highlight NCH’s achievements to existing members, and to solicit new and lapsed organizations to join the coalition. Staff also developed a one-page .pdf version of the infographic that was sent to existing NCH organizations and used as marketing tool.

17. The Executive Director will set a goal of attending the annual meetings of four NCH organizations (within budget limitations) with priority given to those groups who meet the requisite membership level in the Membership and Marketing Plan. 

To the extent possible, the Executive Director will work with member organization representatives to provide presentations at these meetings.

Outcome:  In 2016, the Executive Director made presentations to the leadership of the American Historical Association the Organization of American Historians, National Council on Public History, the Society for History in the Federal Government, and the Association for Documentary Editing during their annual meetings.

2015 was an extremely successful and productive year for the National Coalition for History which saw the achievement of numerous major accomplishments in 2015. Foremost among these was the restoration of funding for K-12 history education in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), was brought to fruition.

In addition, unexpected issues arose that allowed NCH to reinforce its role as the preeminent public voice for history, archives and our other constituencies. These included submitting comments to the federal government on the treatment of oral history in research and a letter to the Secretary of State and the Archivist of the United States expressing concern over the handling of former-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails.

NCH improved in our efforts to educate our constituent organizations (and potential members) about our important contributions in the past, and how the coalition will continue to play a vital role in policy making in the future. NCH launched a newly redesigned website in April 2015 with enhanced social media components.

Issues such as making the case for federal funding for history-related programs will always remain at the core of NCH’s agenda. However, in 2016 the coalition is poised to continue to transform itself beyond Washington to truly make it the “National” Coalition for History.

Below is a summary of NCH’s major accomplishments in 2015:

Restoration of federal funding for K-12 history/civics education

After nearly a decade of false starts, President Obama has signed a new education law (Public Law 114-95) to replace the controversial No Child Left Behind Act; which was passed in 2001. On December 9, the US Senate voted 85–12 to approve the conference report to a bill (S. 1177) to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. On December 2, the House had approved the report by a vote of 359–64.

Most importantly for the historical community, the new law—the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)—restores targeted federal funding for K–12 history and civics education. NCH and the coalition’s member organizations have engaged in advocacy efforts for nearly five years to achieve this goal. Given the elimination of federal funding for over 60 programs in the bill, restoration of funding for history education is a major accomplishment.

ESSA includes four sections that provide funding streams for K–12 history and civics education. Two sections are specifically earmarked for those subjects and two sections establish grant programs in which the subjects are eligible for competitive funding.

• 2232: Presidential and Congressional Academies for American History and Civics— Establishes competitive grant programs for nonprofit organizations to run intensive, two-to- six-week-long academies in American history, civics, and government for high school students and for teachers.
• 2233: National Activities—Creates a competitive grant program for nonprofit organizations and institutions of higher education to develop and disseminate innovative approaches to offering high quality instruction in American history, civics, government and geography for underserved students. This program could be used to fund professional development for teachers.
• 4107: Well-Rounded Educational Opportunities—Provides competitive funding from states to Local Education Agencies (LEAs) to provide students a “well-rounded education.” LEAs can choose from a list of subjects that specifically includes history, civics, economics, and geography.
• Section 4611: Education Innovation and Research—Creates a new research and innovation fund that allows LEAs, in conjunction with nonprofit organizations, to apply for funding to create, implement, replicate, or take to scale entrepreneurial, evidence-based, field-initiated innovations to improve student achievement and attainment for high-need students. Innovations in teaching civics, history, and social studies are eligible for grants.

NCH is already working to ensure the new programs authorized in the law are funded during the FY ’17 congressional appropriations process.

FY ’16 Federal Funding for History-Related Agencies and Programs

On December 18, Congress approved a $1.15 trillion omnibus appropriations bill that will fund the federal government for the rest of fiscal year 2016.  For example, the NEH budget was increased for the first time in six years by $2 million up to a level of $148 million. Potentially severe cuts in the Title VI/Fulbright-Hays International Education programs were defeated.

Of particular note is the level funding the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) received this fiscal year. The original appropriations bill considered in the House Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee would have cut NHPRC’s FY’ 16 budget by 40 percent from the FY’ 15 level of $5 million to $3 million. The situation allowed NCH to use the contacts gained from the Congressional History Caucus, and the cut was rescinded at the House Appropriations Committee markup. The NHPRC was only program in the entire bill to have funding restored.

This has become a mantra in recent years, but the fact that our interests survived intact should be considered a victory in this budget climate.

NCH comments on Human Subjects Research in HHS Rule

In September, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and fifteen other federal departments and agencies announced proposed revisions to the regulations for protection of human subjects in research.

The draft rule stated that “oral history, journalism, biography, and historical scholarship activities that focus directly on the specific individuals about whom the information is collected” be explicitly excluded from “the scope of the Common Rule.”  Moreover, the recommendations acknowledged the importance and value within oral history, and historical studies more generally, to identify individual actors in history, and recognized that there already existed discipline-specific codes of ethical conduct.

The Oral History Association’s (OHA) executive director, the late Dr. Clifford Kuhn, took the lead in preparing draft comments on the proposed rule. The comments strongly endorsed the recommendation to exclude oral history from the Common Rule.  NCH used the OHA’s paper as the basis for a letter submitted to the HHS on October 30. (https://historycoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/NCH-HHS-Human-Subjects-Proposed-Rule-10-30-15.pdf)

National Women’s History Museum Commission

In December 2014, President Obama signed legislation establishing a commission to study the potential creation of a National Women’s History Museum. In 2015, the panel’s members were appointed, and they are now ramping up the commission’s activities. They recently launched a website and social media presence (https://www.womenshistorycommission.org). The commission is tasked with submitting a report to the president and Congress by no later than November 18, 2016.

The commission has solicited input from leading authorities and experts on women’s history, professionals from the museum and curatorial fields, prominent American women, and influential women’s organizations from across the country. A “scholar’s summit” was held in January 2016. I recently met with the commission’s executive director and research director and expressed NCH’s interest in assisting in whatever way we can in its work.

Congressional History Caucus

Throughout 2015 NCH worked to recruit members and assist the Congressional History Caucus in achieving its mission of promoting history on Capitol Hill. We currently have 23 members in the House caucus, which is more than we had at the end of the last session.

Our website includes a “how-to” page to allow NCH organizations and their members to recruit Members of Congress for the caucus. We continued to promote the “Dear Colleague letter” urging representatives to join the caucus. Every House office was contacted at least once by NCH staff. NCH member organizations sent solicitations to their members urging them to contact their House member and urge them to join. More information on the History Caucus can be found at (https://historycoalition.org/congressional-history-caucus)

NCH Organizational Update

As noted above, NCH launched a newly redesigned website in April 2015 with enhanced social media components. As a result, NCH was able to expand the frequency of communications with the full membership not just the policy board. Staff developed an infographic to highlight NCH’s achievements to existing members, and to solicit new and lapsed organizations to join the coalition.  Staff completed a “re-branding” project which included the development of a new logo for NCH for use on letterhead, the website, social media, business cards, etc. Emails recruiting new members were sent to numerous target organizations for follow-up. After the launch of the website, the interns devoted nearly all of their time on membership recruitment and retention.

Introduction

In 2014, the National Coalition for History (NCH) continued to take the lead in advocating for funding for federal programs that affect historians, archivists, educators and other stakeholders. In a progressively hostile budget environment over recent years, NCH has been able to fend off draconian cuts to most programs of interest to our members.

NCH and its constituent organizations effectively mobilized their members to contact Congress concerning funding for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), National Park Service, Title VI/Fulbright-Hays International Education and Foreign Language, and other federal programs. Senior staffs at the affected federal agencies have credited these efforts with preventing deeper cuts or elimination of programs.

Since President George W. Bush issued an executive order in 2001 restricting access to presidential records, NCH has been advocating for changes to the way these records are handled. This year President Obama signed into law the “Presidential and Federal Records Act,” which imposes strict timeframes for incumbent and former-presidents to review records prior to their release. NCH was at the center of efforts to craft legislation to create a commission to study the potential creation of a National Women’s History Museum. NCH’s Executive Director was appointed to a federal Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee.

The Coalition has continued to transform itself into an organization able to respond to situations not just at the federal level but at the state and local levels as well. For example, this year NCH was quick to respond to a controversy in the states over the College Board’s new AP History framework and a local issue in Boston surrounding keeping history and civics as a separate part of the public school curriculum.

NCH has also improved at educating our constituent organizations (and potential members) about its important contributions in the past, and how it will continue to play a vital role in policymaking in the future. NCH created an infographic or “e-brochure” that was made available to existing and prospective members and completed a re-branding that included a new logo and changes to our social media sites. Development of a new website is underway with an expected completion date in early 2015.

Major Accomplishments in 2014

This report summarizes NCH’s activities and highlights major accomplishments this year and reviews the organization’s performance in achieving the goals developed by the Policy Board in January 2014.

1. Presidential Records and Federal Record Act Enactment:

President Obama signed into law the Presidential and Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014 (PL 113-187). This is a major victory for NCH and the historical community. We have been advocating for the passage of Presidential Records Act (PRA) reform legislation since 2001 when President Bush issued an executive order restricting public access to presidential records.

Routinely, when the Archivist of the United States gave notice of his intent to release presidential records, former presidents requested extensions to review them. These requests have been routinely granted by the incumbent, indefinitely delaying the release of the records. The new law will end that practice. The former and incumbent presidents will be subject to specific time limitations as they review records for constitutionally based privilege against disclosure. The current and former president will have an initial 60 days to review the records and will be allowed one 30-day extension.

PL 113- 187 also includes provisions to strengthen the Federal Records Act by expanding the definition of federal records to clearly include electronic records. This is the first change to the definition of a federal record since the enactment of the act in 1950. It grants the Archivist of the United States final determination as to what constitutes a federal record. The law authorizes the early transfer of permanent electronic federal and presidential records to the National Archives.

2. National Women’s History Museum Commission Legislation:

In November, legislation (S. 398) to create a commission to study the potential creation of a National Women’s History Museum was passed by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. In May, NCH sent a letter to the bill’s sponsor, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), withholding our support unless changes were made to the original bill. NCH’s concerns were addressed in the amended bill passed by the committee. As a result, NCH sent a letter to Sen. Collins in November endorsing S. 398.

Senator Collins added the language we requested that an individual with “experience as a professional historian with expertise in women’s history” be appointed to the commission. The House passed a similar bill (HR 863) sponsored by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) last spring without these qualifications.

A strategic decision was made by the Democratic leadership in the Senate to add the National Women’s History Commission bill to a “must-pass” Defense Authorization bill where amendments were not allowed. Unfortunately, the legislators adopted the language from the House bill, which did not include the language regarding historians Senator Collins had agreed to. Nonetheless, NCH and AHA have received assurances from the two leading sponsors that the historical community will be consulted in identifying qualified historians to serve on the commission.

3. Federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Advisory Committee:

In June, Archivist of the United States David Ferriero appointed me to serve on a federal advisory panel designed to develop recommendations on how to improve implementation of the FOIA. NCH is one of only ten private sector appointees to the committee. The panel held its second meeting in October where it sought to refine the issues on which it will focus over the next 18 months. To learn more about the FOIA Advisory Committee go to:

On December 8, legislation to reform the Freedom of Information Act passed the Senate by unanimous consent. S. 2520, sought to reduce the often broad interpretation of FOIA’s exemptions by federal agencies. Although a similar bill passed by the House of Representatives earlier this year, time ran out on the session before the House could consider the amended Senate bill. Despite this setback, it is expected the bill will pass in the 114th Congress. NCH signed on to a letter with over 70 other organizations urging the passage of S. 2520.

4. Fiscal Year 2015 Federal Funding:

On December 16, President Obama signed into law the $1.1 trillion FY2015 Omnibus Appropriations bill that will fund federal government operations through September 2015.

One highlight is a modest $500,000 increase for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), raising its budget to $5 million. This represents the first increase in the NHPRC’s budget in six fiscal years. NEH is level funded at $146 million.

An addendum to this report shows FY 15 funding levels for federal programs of interest to NCH members. In addition, the chart includes funding levels back to FY 12 to provide perspective on how these programs have fared in recent years. Please note FY 13 is an outlier since that was the year the 5% across-the-board cuts were implemented under the budget sequester.

5. Congressional History Caucus:

In 2013, NCH collaborated with Congressmen John Larson (D-CT) and Tom Cole (R-OK), and appointed co-chairs, Congressmen Ander Crenshaw (R-FL) and Bill Pascrell (DNJ), to create a Congressional History Caucus. Its aims are to provide a forum for members of Congress to share their interest in history and to promote an awareness of the subject on Capitol Hill. NCH’s leadership felt it was important for the historical community to be perceived as a resource by Congress instead of just another constituency seeking funding. This effort includes establishing relationships between Members of Congress and historians in their district.

The House caucus will have to be reestablished when the 114th Congress convenes in January. The caucus only garnered 15 members in 2014, so NCH will be mounting an aggressive recruitment campaign in 2015. We recently met with Congressman Larson’s staff to discuss ways to increase interest and membership. NCH will also be working towards establishing a Senate History Caucus in 2015.

6. American Community Survey:

AHA has requested NCH to submit a statement to the U.S. Census Bureau urging them to retain the Undergraduate Field of Degree question in the American Community Survey. NCH is in the process of preparing our comments.

7. Adjunct Faculty Loan Fairness Act:

In July, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced S. 2712, the “the “Adjunct Faculty Loan Fairness Act of 2014.” The bill would allow part-time faculty – who are often paid low wages with few benefits – to be eligible to participate in the federal student loan forgiveness program for public servants. NCH sent a letter to Senator Durbin supporting passage of S. 2712 and will seek to recruit cosponsors when the bill is reintroduced in the 114th Congress.

8. Supporting New AP History Framework:

Throughout 2014, the new framework for the College Boardʼs AP U.S. History exam sparked controversy across the country. Conservative opponents maintained that the teaching of “traditional” American history, e.g. the contributions of the Founding Fathers, and the theme of American exceptionalism, were being deemphasized in the curriculum in favor of so-called “revisionist history” which allegedly painted America in a negative light.

In September, NCH sent a letter to the State Boards of Education in eight states (GA, TN, LA, SC, NC, TX, CO, NV) supporting the College Boardʼs decision to make the AP History course and exam flexible and reflect ongoing developments in scholarship. Other than Tennessee, NCH did not receive any formal responses from the letters that were sent. The issue continues to be considered by state education boards. NCH’s letter to the state boards is referenced on the College Board’s website.

9. Making History and Civics Funding Priorities at the US Department of
Education:

In July, NCH submitted a letter to the US Department of Education requesting History and Civics Education be considered a priority in allocating funds through the agency’s discretionary grant programs in the same way that STEM education is treated. NCH never received a formal response from the Department of Education and there was no additional funding for history programs included in the FY 15 Omnibus appropriations bill that was enacted by Congress.

10. Boston Public Schools Controversy:

In May, rumors spread on the internet that the Boston Public Schools (BPS) system was eliminating its History and Social Studies department. NCH sent a letter to the BPS seeking assurances that this was not the case. Shortly thereafter NCH received a response from BPS Interim Superintendent John McDonough confirming the department was not being eliminated.

11. Recruited Genealogy Groups to Join NCH:

In July, NCH welcomed the Records Preservation and Access Committee (RPAC) to the coalition this summer. RPAC is comprised of the National Genealogical Society (NGS), the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS), and the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS). FGS represents hundreds of genealogical societies and NGS and IAJGS represent over 9,000 genealogists. As one of the most frequent users of archival records, genealogists add a large politically active constituency to NCH.

12. Marketing and New Initiatives:

In October, NCH issued a new online marketing brochure, or infographic, designed to highlight its achievements to existing members and to solicit new and lapsed organizations to join the coalition. The “e-brochure” has been sent to all NCH member organizations for their use. It is also available for viewing on the NCH website at: https://historycoalition.org/brochure/

Attached to the report is NCH’s new logo which is the first stage of our re-branding initiative. This is a major milestone in the implementation of our marketing strategy. We are currently working with a website design firm and we anticipate a rollout of our new website in early 2015.

In August, NCH hired a student intern. Danielle Dulken is currently pursuing her Masters in History at American University with a concentration in public history. Danielle has been instrumental in developing these marketing projects and has agreed to stay at NCH during her spring semester next year.

INTRODUCTION

In 2013, efforts to address the federal deficit once again dominated the congressional agenda. With Republicans controlling the House of Representatives and Democratic control of the Senate and White House, the federal government spent the year gridlocked over funding and tax issues.

Federal appropriations and reauthorization issues have traditionally been a primary focus of the NCH’s efforts on Capitol Hill. The Coalition continued to take the lead in advocating for funding for federal programs that affect historians, archivists, educators and other stakeholders. In an increasingly hostile budget environment, NCH has been able to fend off draconian cuts to most programs of interest to our members.

NCH and its constituent organizations effectively mobilized their members to contact Congress concerning funding for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and Title VI/Fulbright-Hays International Education and Foreign Language, and other federal programs. Senior staffs at the affected federal agencies have credited these efforts with preventing deeper cuts or elimination of programs.

From an organizational standpoint, the Coalition achieved two of its major objectives for the year: the creation of a Congressional History Caucus and the development of a membership and marketing plan.

With the creation of the Congressional History Caucus NCH has begun to transform itself into a resource for policymakers and our stakeholders, not just another group seeking its small piece of the shrinking federal pie.

In the coming year, we will continue to build on the initial transitional steps taken in 2013 to move the Coalition in this new direction. NCH must continue to become a more nimble organization able to respond to situations not just at the federal level but in the states as well. Unfortunately, in the past NCH has not been good at promoting itself and taking credit for its accomplishments. In 2014, the Coalition must do a better job of educating our constituent organizations (and potential members) about its important contributions in the past, and how it will continue to play a vital role in federal policymaking in the future. The new membership and marketing plan was developed to set the path forward.

This report summarizes NCH’s activities and highlights major accomplishments in 2013. Also incorporated into the report is a proposed Work Plan which sets the objectives and priorities for the organization for the coming year.

1. LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY

A. Federal Appropriations

Despite the caveats noted in the introduction, NCH has not, and cannot, abrogate its responsibility to seek federal funding for programs important to our constituents. However, given NCH’s limited resources, the Executive Director should allocate his time accordingly based on the prospects of achieving a successful outcome in each situation.

Not surprisingly, Congress was unable to pass any appropriations bills prior to the start of the fiscal year on October 1. With Congress and the federal government shut down for 16 days in October, and Congress in recess the month of August, there was little time for legislative action on issues affecting our interests. Early in 2013, when Congress failed to act on a budget the mandatory sequester resulted in a 5.0 percent across-the-board reduction in non-exempt non-defense discretionary funding.

In December 2013, Congress passed, and President Obama signed into law, a two-year budget agreement that sets broad parameters on federal spending and avoids further sequestration cuts. This clears the way for the House and Senate to finally pass a FY 14 budget when they return in January 2014.

Reducing the federal deficit will continue to dictate the congressional appropriations process for the foreseeable future. In years past, NCH’s main focus was advocating for increased funding and expansion of federal programs. Now our major concern is holding our own and preventing severe cuts or even elimination of programs. Seeking increased appropriations in this environment would squander NCH’s limited advocacy resources and hurt our credibility with policymakers.

• Policy Objective 1: During the conclusion of the FY 2014 appropriations process and development of the FY15 budget, NCH will lobby aggressively for sustained funding for those federal agencies and programs that have the greatest impact on the historical and archival communities. These include (but are not restricted to):

a) National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
b) National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)
c) Title VI/Fulbright-Hays International Education programs
d) National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
e) National Park Service history and preservation programs
f) Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)

In recent years, programs of interest to NCH constituent organizations have been specifically targeted for elimination by Members of Congress. For example, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has repeatedly sought the elimination of the Political Science program at the National Science Foundation or put limits on the subject matter of projects that can be funded. NCH has worked closely with our member organization the American Political Science Association to fend off these threats. In 2013 NCH fought off efforts to defund, or halve, the National Endowment for the Humanities in the FY 14 budget.

For many years, the History Coalition has successfully led the fight to prevent elimination of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and to ensure that it receives adequate funding to meet its mission. Unfortunately, this small but vital program remains a perennial target for budget cutters in Congress and at the Office of Management and Budget.

• Policy Objective 2: NCH will remain vigilant for targeted language or amendments on appropriations bills designed to reduce funding for specific programs or which detrimentally affect constituent organizations.

B. Federal Funding of K-12 History Education

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) was last authorized in 2001 during the Bush administration under the rubric of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The NCLB’s authorization expired in 2008. In 2013, efforts to pass an ESEA reform bill continued to be bogged down in the House and Senate. The Obama administration’s decision to grant states waivers from NCLB’s compliance requirements removed the sense of urgency for Congress to act on reauthorization legislation.

Nonetheless, NCH worked closely with history, educational, and civics organizations in seeking to create a dedicated funding mechanism for K-12 history education in any NCLB legislation considered by Congress.

• Policy Objective 3: NCH will advocate for restoration of federal K-12 history/civics education funding in the U.S. Department of Education’s FY 15 budget and/or in legislation reauthorizing the ESEA.

C. Presidential Records

For over a decade, the Coalition has been the lead advocate for enactment of Presidential Records Act (PRA) reform legislation. President Obama issued a Presidential Records Executive Order (EO) in 2009, replacing the overly restrictive Bush administration EO. Unfortunately, efforts to codify these changes in the PRA remain stalled in Congress.

The “Presidential and Federal Records Act Amendment of 2013” (HR 1233) cleared the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in June 2013, but has not seen action on the House floor. A Senate version has not yet been introduced. NCH’s Executive Director has reached out to the staff of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to urge Chairman Tom Carper (D-DE) to introduce a bill and bring it before his panel for consideration.

• Policy Objective 4: NCH will take a lead role, with the assistance of other stakeholder groups, in advocating for the House to enact HR 1233, to strengthen the Presidential Records Act. NCH will identify a champion in the Senate to introduce a presidential records reform bill and work toward its passage.

D. Federal Records Preservation and Management

Declassification, records access, and preservation issues will remain a top priority for NCH in the coming year. The Coalition has worked with other stakeholders advocating for passage of legislation reducing over-classification of government records, increasing public access to unclassified records, speeding the declassification process, and establishing standards for the preservation of federal and presidential electronic records.

In 2013, NCH endorsed the “Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act” (H.R. 1380) which requires that any report required by statute to be issued to Congress and releasable under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) be posted on a website managed by the US Government Printing Office (GPO).

The “Electronic Message Preservation Act of 2013” (HR 1234) cleared the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in June 2013, but has not seen action on the House floor. A bill (S 1464) to expedite the declassification process and identify and designate historically valuable records as soon as possible after their creation was introduced in the Senate by Senator Jean Shaheen (D-NH).

• Policy Objective 5: NCH will advocate for the passage of legislation to expedite the preservation and retrieval of federal and presidential records (both paper and electronic) and to streamline the declassification process.

2. REGULATORY & LEGAL ADVOCACY

The National Coalition for History continues to play an important advocacy role with federal agencies. NCH has maintained excellent relationships with the Archivist of the United States, the Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Chief Historian of the National Park Service, the Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the Historian of the State Department, and other key officials in the federal historical and archival bureaucracies.

A. Processing, Preservation, and Declassification of Federal and Presidential Records

NCH collaborated with other stakeholder groups in working with federal agencies to reduce over-classification of government records, increase public access to unclassified records, speed the declassification process, and establish standards for the preservation and retrieval of federal and presidential electronic records.

The National Archives, under the leadership of Archivist of the United States David Ferriero, has been aggressively urging agencies to take their records management responsibilities more seriously. Unfortunately, NARA still lacks the legal authority to compel compliance with federal records laws. NCH will continue to advocate for passage of legislation to establish meaningful records preservation standards and aggressively ensure federal agency compliance.

In December 2103, the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB) held a forum to seek public input on the recommendations in its 2012 report Transforming the Security Classification System regarding the prioritization of the preservation and processing of “historically significant records.” The PIDB report suggested that these records “should be identified and set aside as early as possible after their creation to ensure their preservation, long-term access and availability to agency policymakers and historians.” The PIDB also recommended that each agency should have an in-house history staff to assist agency records officers and declassifiers in the prioritization of records.

• Policy Objective 6: NCH will advocate for implementation of the relevant PIDB recommendations by Congress and within the Administration. NCH will advise the National Declassification Center on developing criteria to prioritize the processing of “historically significant” records, and support the creation of historical advisory panels and/or history offices at relevant federal agencies.
•  Policy Objective 7: NCH will continue to provide advice to and monitor the activities of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Public Interest Declassification Board, the State Department Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress, and other relevant federal bodies.

B. Open Government and Transparency
Since taking office, President Obama has issued a number of executive orders, directives, and memoranda to federal agencies committing his administration to maximum openness, transparency, and public participation. The National Archives has also engaged in a number of open government and outreach efforts.

In December, the NCH coordinated a letter to Director James Clapper of the Officer of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) urging him to reverse the CIA’s decision that the ODNI Open Source Center (OSC) will cease providing information to the World News Connection as of December 31, 2013.

• Policy Objective 8: Working with other stakeholders, NCH will continue to monitor the progress of the Obama administration in achieving its open government objectives. NCH will also work toward identifying new areas in which to promote openness and transparency within the federal government.

C. National Security Archive’s Lawsuit Over Release of the CIA’s Bay of Pigs History

In May 2012, the National Security Archive sued the CIA under the Freedom of Information Act seeking to declassify the full “Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation.” Unfortunately, the U.S. District Court sided with the Agency’s efforts to keep the last volume of the report secret in perpetuity.

The Archive appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In response, the CIA filed a “motion for summary affirmance,” in effect asking the court to decide in its favor without full briefing or oral argument. In August 2012, NCH coordinated a letter from a dozen organizations representing thousands of historians, archivists, political scientists, educators, and researchers opposing the CIA’s motion. On December 7, 2012, the D.C. Appeals Court rejected the CIA’s position and ruled that the case merits the court’s full consideration.

At its January 4, 2013, meeting, the NCH Board passed a motion authorizing the preparation and submission of an amicus brief in support of the National Security Archive’s appellate brief. The Executive Director worked with the law firm Jones-Day in developing the amicus brief which was filed with the D.C. Federal Court of Appeals on January 29, 2013. The Appeals Court heard oral arguments in National Security Archive v. CIA on December 12, 2013. A decision is expected in the spring of 2014.

3. EDUCATION AND OUTREACH

A. Congressional Outreach

At its January 2013 meeting, the NCH Policy Board directed the Executive Director to investigate the creation of House and Senate caucuses devoted to history. Consultations with the Historians of the House and Senate and the heads of the relevant federal agencies to gauge their interest were overwhelmingly positive. Based on these contacts, it was recommended to the NCH Board by the Executive Director that the initial efforts to create such a caucus begin in the House.

Over the past six months, the Executive Director has worked with the offices of Congressmen John Larson (D-CT) and Tom Cole (R-OK), on the creation of a Congressional History Caucus. Subsequently, Representatives Ander Crenshaw (R-FL) and Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) were added as co-chairs. The purpose of the Caucus is to provide a forum for Members of Congress to share their interest in the subject and to promote an awareness of history.

While the Caucus has been created, it is still in the formative stages. There will be a major push when Congress returns in January to solicit Members of Congress to join the organization. At that time, the Coalition will work through its member organizations and history and archives professionals across the country to encourage their representatives to join the caucus and participate in its activitiesPolicy Objective 9: The Executive Director will work with the Congressional History Caucus co-chairs to solicit members through promotion of a “Dear Colleague” letter and in organizing a rollout event. Throughout the year the Executive Director will assist the Congressional History Caucus in achieving its mission of promoting history on Capitol Hill.

• Policy Objective 10: The Executive Director will work towards the creation of a Senate History Caucus by the end of 2014, with the initial steps of identifying potential co-chairs by spring 2014.

B. Implementation of the Membership and Marketing Plan
In 2013, the NCH Board and Executive Director developed and adopted a Marketing and Membership Plan. (See attached). The Plan addressed such topics as promoting the Coalition, the importance of keeping Coalition members informed, membership retention and expansion, and clarifying membership benefits based on contribution levels.

• Policy Objective 11: The Executive Director should make it a top priority to implement the Membership and Marketing Plan and provide the Executive Committee with quarterly reports on his progress.

In 2013, the Executive Director chaired a session at the Organization of American Historians annual meeting on the effects of sequestration on history-related programs at federal agencies.

The Executive Director made a presentation on legislative advocacy during the National Humanities Alliance’s Advocacy Day event in March. Humanities advocates visited Capitol Hill distributed issue briefs and state grant data, and urged members of Congress to support increased funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and Title VI/Fulbright Hays International Education programs.

• Policy Objective 12: The Executive Director will set a goal of attending the annual meetings of four NCH organizations (within budget limitations) with priority given to those groups who meet the requisite membership level in the Membership and Marketing Plan. To the extent possible, the Executive Director will work with member organization representatives to provide presentations at these meetings.

C. Public Outreach
NCH plays an educational role for the history and archives communities it serves. This function is accomplished via the NCH electronic newsletter, the website and RSS feed, the Executive Director’s monthly and quarterly columns in member organizations’ publications, and presentations to constituent organizations at their annual meetings. Because the Coalition’s educational mission also extends to the media and the general public, the Executive Director frequently responds to requests from the print and electronic media.

In 2013, NCH created a Twitter feed and a Facebook page to create a social media presence for the organization.

The 2013 budget approved by the NCH Board authorized $10,000 to redesign NCH’s website. The Executive Director contracted with the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (CHNM) to redesign the website. $6,800 of the amount allocated by the Board has been spent to date. However, there has been a general consensus among the NCH Executive Committee that the prototype needs extensive additional work before going live.

CHNM created the existing website in 2007 and maintained the website under a contract that expired in 2012. Since that time CHNM has hosted the website as an in-kind contribution in lieu of its previous annual dues payment of $1,000. It is estimated the current annual cost of maintaining the website is $1,500.

• Policy Objective 13: In consultation with the NCH Board, the Executive Director will work with CHNM to continue to refine the parameters of the website with a completion date no later than April 30, 2014. If the cost of completion exceeds $5,000, the Executive Director must seek Board approval before expending any additional funds.

4. FINANCES–Budget Narrative and 2014 Proposed Budget (sent separately).

2014 National Coalition for History Policy Objectives

1. During the conclusion of the FY 2014 appropriations process and development of the FY15 budget, NCH will lobby aggressively for sustained funding for those federal agencies and programs that have the greatest impact on the historical and archival communities. These include (but are not restricted to):
a) National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
b) National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)
c) Title VI/Fulbright-Hays International Education programs
d) National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
e) National Park Service history and preservation programs
f) Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)

2. NCH will remain vigilant for targeted language or amendments on appropriations bills designed to reduce funding for specific programs or which detrimentally affect constituent organizations.

3. NCH will advocate for restoration of federal K-12 history/civics education funding in the U.S. Department of Education’s FY 14 budget and/or in legislation reauthorizing the ESEA.

4. NCH will take a lead role, with the assistance of other stakeholder groups, in advocating for the House to enact HR 1233, to strengthen the Presidential Records Act. NCH will identify a champion in the Senate to introduce a presidential records reform bill and work toward its passage.

5. NCH will advocate for the passage of legislation to expedite the preservation and retrieval of federal and presidential records (both paper and electronic) and to streamline the declassification process.

6. NCH will advocate for implementation of the relevant PIDB recommendations by Congress and within the Administration. NCH will advise the National Declassification Center on developing criteria to prioritize the processing of “historically significant” records, and support the creation of historical advisory panels and/or history offices at relevant federal agencies.

7. NCH will continue to provide advice to and monitor the activities of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Public Interest Declassification Board, the State Department Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress and other relevant federal bodies.

8. Working with other stakeholders, NCH will continue to monitor the progress of the Obama administration in achieving its open government objectives. NCH will also work toward identifying new areas in which to promote openness and transparency within the federal government.

9. The Executive Director will work with the Congressional History Caucus co-chairs to solicit members through promotion of a “Dear Colleague” letter and in organizing a rollout event. Throughout the year the Executive Director will assist the Congressional History Caucus in achieving its mission of promoting history on Capitol Hill.

10. The Executive Director will work towards the creation of a Senate History Caucus by the end of 2014, with the initial steps of identifying potential co-chairs by spring 2014.

11. The Executive Director should make it a top priority to implement the Membership and Marketing Plan and provide the Executive Committee with quarterly reports on his progress.

12. The Executive Director will set a goal of attending the annual meetings of four NCH organizations (within budget limitations) with priority given to those groups who meet the requisite membership level in the Membership and Marketing Plan. To the extent possible, the Executive Director will work with member organization representatives to provide presentations at these meetings.

13. In consultation with the NCH Board, the Executive Director will work with CHNM to continue to refine the parameters of the website with a completion date no later than April 30, 2014. If the cost of completion exceeds $5,000, the Executive Director must seek Board approval before expending any additional funds.

Efforts to address the federal deficit dominated the congressional appropriations process in 2012. With Republicans controlling the House of Representatives and Democratic control of the Senate and White House, the federal government spent the year gridlocked over funding and tax issues.

Federal appropriations and reauthorization issues have traditionally been a primary focus of the NCH’s advocacy efforts. In 2012, NCH continued to take the lead in advocating for funding for federal programs that affect historians, archivists, educators and other stakeholders. In an increasingly hostile budget environment, NCH has been able to fend off draconian cuts to most programs of interest to our constituencies.

NCH and its constituent organizations were actively involved in advocacy efforts, mobilizing their respective members to contact Congress concerning funding for the National Historical Publications & Records Commission (NHPRC), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and Title VI/ Fulbright-Hays International Education and Foreign Language programs. Senior staffs at the affected federal agencies have credited these efforts with preventing deeper cuts or elimination of programs.

The 2013 NCH Work Plan, which was submitted separately to the Policy Board, details the proposed road ahead for the Coalition. This report summarizes NCH’s activities and highlights major accomplishments in 2012.

1. LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY

A. Federal Appropriations

The 2012 Work Plan directed that appropriations and reauthorization issues should be a primary focus of the NCH’s advocacy efforts.

Not surprisingly, Congress postponed addressing a host of controversial issues before leaving to campaign in the fall. Because of the party conventions and the election, Congress was not in session for most of the period from August until November. As a result, there was no legislative action on issues affecting our interests, such as reauthorizing federal education and federal records management programs.

Congress was unable to finalize a budget for FY 2013 when the new fiscal year began on October 1, 2012. Congress passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) at the end of September that provides funding to keep the federal government operating until March 27, 2013. Federal programs remain funded at the FY ’12 level.

On January 1, Congress passed legislation addressing the tax issues involved in the so-called “Fiscal Cliff.” However, Congress postponed action on the across-the-board budget cuts, known as the “sequester,” which would have gone into effect on January 2. Congress set a new deadline of March 27, the same day the current CR expires. Should Congress fail to act, automatic spending cuts estimated at $85 billion would go into effect.

B. Federal Funding of K-12 History Education

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) was last authorized in 2001 during the Bush administration under the rubric of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The NCLB’s authorization expired in 2008. In 2012, efforts to pass an ESEA reform bill stalled in the House and Senate. The Obama administration’s decision to grant states waivers from NCLB’s looming compliance requirements removed the sense of urgency for Congress to act on the reauthorization legislation.

Nonetheless, NCH worked closely with history, educational and civics organizations in seeking to create a dedicated funding mechanism for K-12 history and civics education in the Department of Education’s FY 13 budget. The Executive Director met with the staffs of nearly 25 members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to seek a champion to request funding during the appropriations process. While we were ultimately unsuccessful, the effort was important to demonstrate to Members of Congress continued public support for history education.

C. National Historical Publications and Records Commission

For many years, the History Coalition has led the fight to stave off elimination of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and to ensure that it receives adequate funding to meet its mission. Unfortunately, this small but vital program remains a perennial target for budget cutters in Congress and at the Office of Management and Budget.

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) received $5 million under the continuing FY 13 budget resolution. This is $2 million more than the Administration’s request. The House Appropriations Committee proposed cutting NHPRC funding to $2.5 million. The National Coalition for History, the Association for Documentary Editing, the Society for American Archivists, and Council of State Archivists lobbied vigorously for the adoption of the $5 million figure.

D. Elimination of the Political Science Program at the National Science Foundation

In May 2012, the U.S. House of Representatives approved an amendment to the FY 2013 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations bill that defunded political science programs at the National Science Foundation (NSF). The amendment passed by a roll-call vote of 218 to 208.

While the amendment was not considered in the Senate, and not included in the FY 13 continuing budget resolution, this is the second time in recent years that the political science program at NSF has been targeted for elimination. NCH coordinated its opposition to the amendment with the National Humanities Alliance and American Political Science Association.

E. Presidential Records

For over a decade, the History Coalition has been the lead advocate for enactment of Presidential Records Act (PRA) reform legislation. President Obama issued a Presidential Records Executive Order (EO) in 2009, replacing the overly restrictive Bush administration EO. Unfortunately, efforts to codify changes in the PRA remain stalled in Congress.

In November 2011, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved, by voice vote, H.R. 3071, the “Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2011.” Although H.R. 3071 received overwhelming support in Committee, the bill was never scheduled for floor action in the House and no comparable legislation was introduced in the Senate.

2. REGULATORY ADVOCACY

The National Coalition for History continues to play an important advocacy role with federal agencies. NCH has maintained excellent relationships with the Archivist of the United States, the Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Chief Historian of the National Park Service, the Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the Historian of the State Department, and other key officials in the federal historical and archival bureaucracies.

A. Processing, Preservation and Declassification of Federal and Presidential Records

NCH collaborated with other stakeholder groups in working to reduce over-classification of government records, increase public access to unclassified records, speed the declassification process, and establish standards for the preservation and retrieval of federal and presidential electronic records.

The National Archives, under the leadership of Archivist of the United States David Ferriero, has been aggressively urging agencies to take their records management responsibilities more seriously, although NARA still lacks the legal authority to compel compliance with federal records laws. NCH will continue to advocate for passage of legislation to establish meaningful records preservation standards and aggressively ensure federal agency compliance.

In 2012, NCH continued to advise and monitor the activities of the National Declassification Center, Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB), the State Department’s Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress, and the Advisory Committee on Presidential Library-Foundations.

In December, the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB) submitted recommendations to the President on reforming procedures on the classification and declassification of federal records in a report entitled Transforming the Security Classification System.

Of particular interest to historians is PIDB’s recommendation regarding the prioritization of the preservation and processing of “historically significant records.” The PIDB suggested that these records “should be identified and set aside as early as possible after their creation to ensure their preservation, long-term access and availability to agency policymakers and historians. Each agency should have an in-house history staff to assist agency records officers and declassifiers in the prioritization of records.” NCH will be advocating for implementation of this recommendation by Congress and within the Administration.

B. Open Government Initiatives

NCH was involved in collaborative efforts with stakeholders on a number of open government issues. These include a letter sent to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa opposing H.R. 3699, the “Research Works Act.” This bill would have repealed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy that secures no-fee public access to NIH’s taxpayer-funded research. The legislation would also have blocked the development of similar public access policies at other federal agencies. The bill was never considered by the Committee.

A group called “Yes We Scan” organized a White House petition drive to have the federal government analyze the cost effectiveness of digitizing holdings from the National Archives, Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, and scores of other federal agencies. The petition called on the Obama administration to create a commission to answer–within one year–questions such as what federal holdings should be prioritized for digitization, the technological challenges of digitization, costs, and the economic and non-economic benefits. Unfortunately, the petition did not receive the requisite 25,000 signatures on the White House website to move forward. NCH publicized the effort widely through its newsletter, website and constituent organizations.

3. GEORGIA STATE ARCHIVES CLOSURE

In September, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp announced the closure of the State Archives to the public on November 1 due to across-the-board budget cuts mandated by Governor Nathan Deal. The Secretary of State also eliminated 7 of the 10 positions at the State Archives.

On September 21, the National Coalition for History (NCH) and 19 stakeholder organizations sent a letter to the Governor and Secretary of State opposing the budget cuts, denial of public access to the Archives, and the termination of the bulk of the Archives’ employees.

In October, Governor Deal and Secretary of State Kemp announced they would restore funding to keep the facility open until the end of the state’s fiscal year on June 30, 2013. The agreement retained the current hours of operation, which would have been severely curtailed. Under the plan, the University System of Georgia would assume control of the Georgia Archives on July 1, 2013, pending approval of the state’s General Assembly.

Public pressure put on the Governor by archivists, historians and other stakeholders garnered a great deal of media coverage and clearly motivated Deal’s commitment to keep the Archive’s open. NCH played a critical role in coordinating the response from our membership organizations that included historians, archivists, political scientists, legal historians and the preservation community (Civil War Trust).

4. RELEASE OF CIA HISTORY ON THE BAY OF PIGS INVASION

In May 2012, the National Security Archive sued the CIA under the Freedom of Information Act seeking to declassify the full “Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation.” Unfortunately, the U.S. District Court sided with the Agency’s efforts to keep the last volume of the report secret in perpetuity.

The Archive appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In response, the CIA filed a “motion for summary affirmance,” in effect asking the court to decide in its favor without full briefing or oral argument. In December, the D.C. Appeals Court rejected the CIA’s position and ruled that the case merits the court’s full consideration with briefs due in early-2013.

In August, the National Coalition for History (NCH) coordinated a letter from a dozen organizations representing thousands of historians, archivists, political scientists, educators and researchers opposing the CIA’s motion. The NCH letter argued the precedential impact of the case would have devastating consequences on future access to records and materials for research, especially in the areas of national security, foreign relations, military history and presidential history. NCH asserted federal agencies would rely on the district court’s overly broad interpretation to deny similar FOIA requests in the future.

Tom Blanton, the Executive Director of the National Security Archive, told the History Coalition, “Your wonderful letter definitely had an impact on the government, which claimed in its brief that including such a letter as an attachment, as our lawyers did, was unheard of. But the court accepted our brief and the letter.”

5. EDUCATION AND OUTREACH

A. Conferences and Presentations

In 2012, the NCH Executive Director attended—and in some cases participated in—panel discussions at meetings of the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, the Society of American Archivists, Council of State Archivists, Society for History in the Federal Government, and the Southern for Military History.

The Executive Director made a presentation on legislative advocacy during the National Humanities Alliance’s Advocacy Day event in March. Humanities advocates visited Capitol Hill distributed issue briefs and state grant data, and urged members of Congress to support increased funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and Title VI/Fulbright Hays International Education programs.

B. Publications and Action Alerts

Throughout the year NCH continued to provide the historical and archival communities with its electronic newsletter, NCH Washington Update. We continue to have secondary distribution through the SEDIT list of documentary editors, as well as through a direct link from George Mason University’s History News Network web page.

NCH columns in constituent member publications continue to reach a broad but targeted audience of historians (30,000), museum professionals (10,000), and archivists (46,000) through the publications of its constituent organizations.

6. FINANCIAL STATEMENT

The National Coalition for History ended its fiscal year with $182,725 in income and $174,500 in expenses. At the end of the fiscal year NCH had cash-on-hand in the amount of $178,600.

Efforts to reduce the federal deficit drove the congressional appropriations process in 2012. With the Republicans controlling the House of Representatives and the Democratic majority in the Senate, the Congress spent most of the year in gridlock over funding and tax issues. In years past, the National Coalition for History’s (NCH) main focus was advocating for increased funding for federal programs that affect the historical and archival communities. During the fiscal year (FY) 2012 congressional budget process, NCH’s advocacy efforts were necessarily focused on preventing severe cuts or elimination of programs.

The 2012 NCH Work Plan, which was submitted separately to the Policy Board, details the proposed road ahead for the Coalition. This report summarizes NCH’s activities and highlights the major accomplishments in 2011.

LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY

1. Federal Appropriations

The 2011 Work Plan directed that appropriations and reauthorization issues should be a primary focus of the NCH’s advocacy efforts.

Before adjourning in December, the 112th Congress passed an omnibus spending bill for FY ‘12 that runs until September 30, 2012. The bill encompassed nine of the twelve annual appropriations bills and all of the programs of interest to the historical and archival communities.

Of major interest, the Teaching American History Grants program at the U.S. Department of Education has been terminated. However, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) was saved from elimination (see below).

The cuts or level funding for programs of concern to our members must be viewed in the context of the efforts to reduce the federal budget deficit. Some solace should be taken in the fact that, with the exception of Teaching American History Grants, the federal agencies and programs for which we advocate in most cases sustained cuts that were far less onerous than expected. NCH and its constituent organizations were actively involved in advocacy efforts and mobilized their respective members to contact Congress on numerous occasions. Staff members at federal agencies have credited these efforts with preventing deeper cuts or elimination of programs.

For example, although funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities was cut by $9 million, the $146 million it received was actually the level requested by the Obama administration. Historic preservation programs at the National Park Service received a small increase and museum programs at the Institute of Museum and Library Services were cut by only $500,000.

At the request of the American Historical Association, NCH became involved in advocacy efforts to preserve funding for the U.S. Department of Education’s International Education and Foreign Language Studies (IEFLS) programs, including HEA-Title VI and Fulbright-Hays programs, which form the vital infrastructure of the federal government’s investment in the international service pipeline. The Fulbright-Hays programs are of particular importance to historians because of the resources they provide for research and education relating to foreign languages and cultures.

Although these programs sustained major cuts in FY ’11, NCH was involved in a successful effort to preserve level funding for these programs in FY ‘12.

2. Federal Funding of K-12 History Education

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) was last authorized in 2001 during the Bush administration under the rubric of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The NCLB’s authorization expired in 2008. In 2011, efforts to pass an ESEA reform bill moved forward in both the House and Senate. However, there were serious ideological differences between the two approaches and it seems unlikely that a bipartisan solution will be reached to pass a bill in 2012.

On October 20, 2011, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) completed its markup of the reauthorization of the ESEA. The bill includes an amendment, offered by Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., that would create a “well-rounded” education fund. School districts could use the money to fund programs in history, civics education, social studies and eight other subject areas. This is similar to what the White House proposed in 2010 in “A Blueprint for Reform,” the administration’s plan for reauthorizing the ESEA.

While this is by no means an ideal solution, given the current emphasis on deficit reduction and the drive to push decisions on education spending to the localities, it does ensure that federal funds will still be available for history education and professional development, albeit at a much lower level. We will continue to advocate for restoration of the TAH grants program in a final ESEA bill. But with neither Congress nor the White House willing to keep TAH on the table, we alternatively need to exert effective pressure in favor of the Harkin/Enzi ESEA bill that is actually in play, which includes the “well-rounded” education language. Chairman Harkin has stated that he intends to bring the ESEA bill to the Senate floor in 2012.

There is no comparable, comprehensive ESEA reauthorization bill in the House. Instead a number of piecemeal bills addressing specific sections of the ESEA have been introduced. In May 2011, the House Education and Workforce Committee passed H.R. 1891, the “Setting New Priorities in Education Act”, which would eliminate 43 programs at the Department of Education including TAH grants.

Throughout 2011, the National Coalition for History worked closely with history, educational and civics organizations in seeking to preserve TAH as an independent program. We also worked to ensure that history received a dedicated level of funding in any “well-rounded” education program that might be developed as an alternative to TAH. The Executive Director met with the staffs of nearly 20 members of the House Education and the Workforce Committee to push for the “well-rounded” education proposal.
We renewed our relationship with the National Council for History Education which rejoined the History Coalition.

3. National Historical Publications and Records Commission

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) will receive $5 million under the 2012 omnibus appropriations bill. The House Appropriations Committee had proposed cutting funding for the NHPRC to $1 million. The National Coalition for History, the Association for Documentary Editing, the Society of American Archivists, and the Council of State Archivists lobbied hard for the adoption of the $5 million figure. Despite the $2 million cut from FY 11, this can be considered a victory.

4. Presidential Records

NCH has been working for many years to ensure passage of a Presidential Records Act (PRA) reform bill. President Obama issued a new Presidential Records Executive Order (EO) on his first day in office, replacing the overly restrictive Bush administration EO. Unfortunately, efforts to codify changes in the PRA remain stalled in Congress.

On November 17, 2011, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved, by voice vote, H.R. 3071, the “Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2011.” The version as adopted embodied a manager’s amendment offered by Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., which added federal records management provisions to the original bill (which addressed only presidential records). Although H.R. 3071 received overwhelming support in Committee, the bill has yet to be scheduled for floor action in the House and no comparable legislation has been introduced in the Senate.

REGULATORY ADVOCACY:

The National Coalition for History continues to play an important advocacy role with federal agencies. NCH has maintained excellent relationships with the Archivist of the United States, the Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Chief Historian of the National Park Service, the Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the Historian of the State Department, the Director of the Teaching American History Grants office at the Department of Education, and other key officials in the federal historical and archival bureaucracies.

1. Processing, Preservation and Declassification of Federal and Presidential Records

NCH collaborated with other stakeholder groups in working to reduce over-classification of government records, increase public access to unclassified records, speed the declassification process, and establish standards for the preservation and retrieval of federal and presidential electronic records.

On November 28, 2011, President Obama issued a memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies on Managing Government Records. The National Archives and the Office of Management and Budget will eventually be issuing a Records Management Directive to agencies that will provide specific steps to reform records management policies and practices.

The National Archives, under the leadership of Archivist of the United States David Ferriero, has been aggressive in urging agencies to take their records management responsibilities more seriously, although NARA still lacks the legal authority to compel compliance with federal records laws. NCH will continue to advocate for passage of legislation to establish meaningful records preservation standards and aggressively ensure federal agency compliance.

NCH input continues to be sought out by NARA’s National Declassification Center, and the directors of the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), and Office of Presidential Libraries at the National Archives.

In 2011, NCH continued to advise and monitor the activities of the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB), the State Department’s Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress, the Advisory Committee on the Electronic Records Archive, and the Advisory Committee on Presidential Library-Foundations.

2. Open Government Initiatives

Throughout 2011, NCH has been involved in collaborative efforts with stakeholders on a number of open government issues. These include:

A. A letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa in support of the “Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2011” (H.R. 3071). This bill provides a framework for the assertion of privilege by a former president and clarifies the rights and obligations of the incumbent president and the Archivist of the United States in dealing with such claims.

B. A letter to the White House urging the establishment of a Presidential Advisory Committee on Open Government under the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 as a key objective in the initial U.S. Open Government Action Plan that was released in September.

C. A letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa urging consideration of the “Faster FOIA Act” (H.R.1564), which would establish the Commission on Freedom of Information Act Processing Delays. The Senate unanimously passed the legislation (S. 1466), co-authored by Senators Leahy (D-VT) and Cornyn (R-TX), earlier this year.

D. A letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa in support of the “Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act” (H.R. 1974). The bill requires that any report required by statute to be issued to Congress and releasable under the Freedom of Information Act be posted on a website managed by the US Government Printing Office.

E. A letter to the members of the House and Senate Legislative Appropriations Subcommittees urging them to allow the Congressional Research Service (CRS) the option of allocating funds to make its reports publicly available. Prior legislative branch appropriations language prohibits CRS from expending funds to make its products publicly available.

Similar letters were sent to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman urging the reintroduction and consideration of legislation to authorize and promote the public distribution of reports that are published by the CRS.

3. Preservation Issues

During the past few years, NCH has participated in efforts—at the request of our member organization the Civil War Trust (CWT)—to oppose encroachments on significant Civil War battlefields. This year, two high-profile preservation battles were decided in our favor.

Proposed Casino at Gettysburg Battlefield: The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board rejected a proposal to license a casino located one-half mile from the Gettysburg National Military Park. In addition to a joint letter from NCH, the American Historical Association, National Coalition for History, National Council on Public History, Organization of American Historians, Society for Military History, and Southern Historical Association sent a separate joint letter of opposition to the gaming board. NCH assisted the Civil War Trust in identifying more than 275 Civil War historians who signed on to a letter to the gaming board in opposition to the casino.

Wal-Mart Wilderness Battlefield Controversy:

Beginning in 2008, NCH was involved with the Civil War Trust to prevent Wal-Mart from building a “superstore” on land adjacent to the Wilderness Civil War Battlefield in Fredericksburg, Virginia. NCH provided the CWT with a list of more than 250 Civil War scholars who sent a letter to Wal-Mart opposing the building of the store. NCH also joined a Wilderness Battlefield Preservation Coalition. In 2009, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to allow Wal-Mart to construct the facility. Due to legal action and continued opposition from the historical and preservation communities, however, in January Wal-Mart abandoned its plans to build the facility.

EDUCATION AND OUTREACH

1. Conferences and Presentations

This year I attended—and in some cases participated in panel discussions at—the annual meetings of the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, Society for History in the Federal Government, and the Southern Historical Association.

I made a presentation on legislative advocacy during the National Humanities Alliance’s Advocacy Day event in March. Humanities advocates visited Capitol Hill distributed issue briefs and state grant data, and asked members of Congress to support increased funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and Title VI/Fulbright Hays International Education programs.

2. Publications and Action Alerts

Throughout the year NCH continued to provide the historical and archival communities with its electronic newsletter, NCH Washington Update. Subscriptions to NCH Washington Update have increased to nearly 2,100. Traffic at the NCH website reached nearly 1,000,000 hits in 2011, up nearly 400,000 from last year.

We continue to have secondary distribution through the SEDIT list of documentary editors, as well as through a direct link from George Mason University’s History News Network web page.

NCH columns in constituent member publications continue to reach a broad but targeted audience of historians (30,000), museum professionals (10,000), and archivists (46,000) through the publications of its constituent organizations.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

The National Coalition for History ended its fiscal year with $182,000 in income and $177,400 in expenses. At the end of the fiscal year NCH had cash-on-hand in the amount of $175,000.

Due to the elections and the preoccupation of Congress with health care and financial reform, the appropriations process moved even slower than usual in 2010. With the Republican ascendancy in the House and the reduction of the Democratic majority in the Senate budget cuts designed to reduce the federal deficit will dictate the congressional appropriations process in 2011. In years past, NCH’s main focus was advocating for increased funding for federal programs that affect the historical and archival communities. During the upcoming fiscal year (FY) 2012 congressional budget process, hundreds of constituencies will compete for scarce discretionary federal funds. Holding our own and seeking to prevent severe cuts, or even elimination of programs, will be the new reality.

The 2011 NCH Work Plan, which was submitted separately to the Policy Board, details the road ahead for the Coalition. This report review NCH’s 2010 activities.

I. LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY

1. Federal Appropriations

The 2010 Work Plan directed that appropriations and reauthorization issues should be a primary focus of the NCH’s advocacy efforts.

Before adjourning sine die in late-December, the 111th Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) for fiscal year (FY) 2011 that runs until March 4, 2011. Federal agency FY 11 budgets were frozen at FY 2010 funding levels. However, the Republican leadership in the House and Senate have pledged to try to attempt to cut the FY 11 budget back to FY 2008 levels when the CR expires next March. As a result, the implications for federal agency programs are not known at this time.

In March 2010, NCH submitted testimony to the House and Senate Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittees on NARA and the NHPRC’s FY 2011 proposed budgets. NCH supported the Administration’s proposed funding for the National Declassification Center, Electronic Records Archive and other operational programs. NCH strongly supported the proposed increase in funding to hire additional archival staff. NCH called for $13 million in funding for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission instead of the Administration’s proposed funding level of $10 million.

2. Teaching American History Grants:

In fiscal year 2002, due to the leadership of Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), Congress authorized the “Teaching American History” (TAH) grants program in the Department of Education. Nearly $1 billion of federal dollars have been allocated over the past decade to improve K-12 history education. However, with Senator Byrd’s passing in June the program is now in danger.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) was last authorized in 2001 during the Bush administration under the rubric of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Since the law’s enactment a major flaw has been the over-emphasis placed on reading and math at the expense of other subjects, such as history. The No Child Left Behind law’s authorization expired in 2008. However given the host of legislative issues facing Congress in 2010, no action was taken to reauthorize the ESEA.

In March 2010, the White House released “A Blueprint for Reform,” which details the administration’s plans for reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Like NCLB, the reform proposal continues to prioritize reading and math over other subjects.

President Obama’s FY 2011 budget request to Congress for the Department of Education proposed consolidating 38 existing K–12 education programs into 11 new programs. Under the administration’s budget request, grants for history education would now be part of a new program called “Effective Teaching and Learning for a Well-Rounded Education.” Teaching American History Grants would be consolidated into this new program and would no longer exist as a free-standing budget line item.

The administration proposed $265 million in funding in fiscal 2011 for the new initiative. Although the fiscal 2011 budget request included a $38.9 million increase in funding to support teaching and learning in arts, history, civics, foreign languages, geography, and economics, the administration proposes to combine eight subject-specific grant programs into a single competitive grant program. Unfortunately, under the proposed competitive grant program the various subjects would be pitted against each other for scarce resources.

In July, the National Coalition for History (NCH) and ten other NCH members joined forces with over 20 educational organizations representing other K-12 academic disciplines in issuing a statement to Congress and the Administration calling for the continued robust funding of core academic subjects including history. This includes maintenance of discrete funding for each discipline, including Teaching American History grants.

While the Congress did not incorporate the Obama administration’s education budget request into the final FY 11 continuing resolution, it is likely the White House will resubmit the reform plan when the FY 12 budget is released next February.

3. National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) Reauthorization

NCH urged the passage of the House and Senate bills with an annual authorization for the NHPRC at the $20 million level.

The NHPRC’s authorization expired on September 30, 2009, which had authorized funding at the $10 million level. Legislation (H.R. 5616) was introduced in the House to reauthorize the NHPRC for 5 years through FY 2015 at an annual level of $20 million. In July, the Senate passed legislation (S. 2872) to reauthorize the NHPRC at an annual level of $10 million for five years, through FY 2014.

On June 7, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and the National Archives held a hearing to consider ways to strengthen the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

Even before any witnesses testified, both Republicans on the subcommittee who were present took a hard line against any increase in the authorization level and also argued that the National Archives should focus on its core mission of preserving federal records. They asserted that NHPRC funding should not go to states or other entities to preserve “non-federal” records.

Witnesses representing six NCH member organizations testified at the hearing including the American Historical Association, Association for Documentary Editing, American Association for State & Local History, Council of State Archivists, Organization of American Historians, and Society of American Archivists.

On July 30, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s scheduled mark up of legislation (H.R. 5616), was postponed indefinitely. Although no official reason was given as to why the bill was pulled from the agenda at the last minute, apparently the Republican members of the committee had planned to offer a number of crippling amendments. These included cutting the authorization level for the NHPRC in the bill to $10 million and limiting eligibility and the scope of projects the NHPRC could fund.

For example, days before the hearing Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) introduced H.R. 5865, the “Stop Wasting Archive Grants Act of 2010.” The bill would prohibit the Archivist of the United States from making “grants to preserve or publish non-Federal records.”

4. Presidential Records:

In January 2009, presidential records reform legislation (H.R. 35) was the first bill passed the House. In July 2009, similar legislation cleared the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. However, for the second year in a row Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) continued to place a hold on the bill preventing its consideration in the Senate. Senator Joseph Lieberman (ID-CT), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and General Government Committee, repeatedly tried to convince Senator Sessions to lift his opposition, but to no avail.

The incoming Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Darrell Issa (R-CA) has publicly committed himself to continuing to press for openness and transparency. Issa voted in favor of the presidential records bill in 2009 and 2007, so there is hope he will support the introduction and passage of similar legislation in the 112th Congress. However, it is likely Senator Sessions will continue to object to passage.

5. Formula Grants for State and Local Archives

The archival community lobbied throughout the year for the passage of legislation (H.R. 2256, S. 3227) to establish the Partnership for the American Historical Record (PAHR), a state-based formula grant program for archives. NCH has endorsed the bill and assisted their efforts by issuing a legislative alert to those on our mailing list urging them to contact their Members of Congress and ask them to co-sponsor the bills.

II. FEDERAL AGENCY ADVOCACY:

The National Coalition for History continues to play an equally important advocacy role with federal agencies. The NCH has maintained excellent relationships with the Archivist of the United States, the Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Chief Historian of the National Park Service, the Director of the Smithsonian’s American History Museum, the Director of the Teaching American History Grants office at the Department of Education and other key officials in the federal historical and archival bureaucracies.

1. Processing, Preservation and Declassification of Federal and Presidential Records

NCH collaborated with other stakeholder groups in working to reduce over-classification of government records, increase public access to unclassified records, speed the declassification process and establish standards for the preservation and retrieval of federal and presidential electronic records. NCH will continue to press for the passage of legislation or regulatory action by NARA to establish meaningful records preservation standards and aggressively ensure federal agency compliance.

The National Archives has a 400+ million page backlog of records that need to be processed and declassified. NCH’s input was solicited by NARA’s new National Declassification Center on establishing a prioritization scheme for the declassification of its vast holdings. NCH also participated in meetings with the Directors of the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), Electronic Records Archive and Presidential Libraries at the National Archives.

In 2010, NCH continued to advise and monitor the activities of the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB), the State Department’s Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress, the Advisory Committee on the Electronic Records Archive and the Advisory Committee on Presidential Library-Foundations.

2. Open Government Initiatives:

Throughout 2010, NCH has been involved in collaborative efforts with stakeholders on a number of open government issues. These include:

• A letter to the Information Policy Subcommittees in the Senate and House requesting hearings on the apparent destruction of emails relating to the Central Intelligence Agency’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on suspected terrorists. The letter requested the subcommittee to require the Department of Justice to determine how the e-mails could be missing despite the requirements of the Federal Records Act (FRA).
• A letter to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) in support of legislation, S. 3111, the Faster FOIA Act, that would establish a commission to make recommendations to Congress and the President for reducing impediments to the efficient processing of FOIA requests.
• A letter to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in support of H.R. 1387, the Electronic Message Preservation Act. H.R. 1387 directs the Archivist to establish standards for the capture, management, and preservation of White House and agency e-mails, and certification standards for any electronic records management systems implemented at agencies.
• A letter to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in support of H.R. 6026, the Congressionally Mandated Reports Act. The bill will make it easier for the public to find information about how well federal agencies are fulfilling their respective missions, and use the information to hold officials accountable.
• A letter to the United States Archivist, David S. Ferriero, strongly encouraging the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to provide the maximum possible electronic access to vital records in the Electronic Records Archive (ERA) as they further develop the system.

3. Proposed Casino at Gettysburg Battlefield:

On July 1, 276 American historians sent a letter to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in opposition to a proposal to license a casino located one-half mile from the Gettysburg National Military Park. Beyond the individual signatories, the American Historical Association, National Coalition for History, National Council on Public History, Organization of American Historians, Society for Military History and Southern Historical Association sent a separate joint-letter of opposition to the Gaming Board. NCH assisted the Civil War Preservation Trust in identifying Civil War historians to be approached in endorsing the letter. The Gaming Board is expected to make a final decision in January 2011.

III. EDUCATION AND OUTREACH

1. Conferences and Presentations:

This year the Executive Director attended—and in some cases participated in panel discussions—at the annual meetings of the American Historical Association, Society for Military History, Organization of American Historians, Society for History in the Federal Government, Society of American Archivists and National Council on Public History.

The NCH Executive Director made a presentation on legislative advocacy during the National Humanities Alliance’s Lobby Day event in March. Humanities advocates visited Capitol Hill and distributed issue briefs and state grant data, and asked members of Congress to support increased funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities and National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

The Executive Director appeared on a panel at the National Archives during a public meeting to discuss the need for a Historian at the agency. The Archivist of the United States has subsequently proposed creating a Historian of the National Archives position.

2. Publications and Action Alerts:

Throughout the year the NCH continued to provide the historical and archival communities with its electronic newsletter, the NCH Washington Update. Subscriptions to the NCH Washington Update have increased to nearly 2,100 and 233 people subscribe via RSS feed. Traffic at the NCH website was approximately 575,000 hits.

We continue to have secondary distribution through the SEDIT list of documentary editors, as well as through a direct link from George Mason University’s History News Network web page.

NCH columns in constituent member publications continue to reach a broad but targeted audience of historians (30,000), museum professionals (10,000), and archivists (4,000) through the publications of its constituent organizations.

IV. FINANCIAL STATEMENT

The National Coalition for History ended its fiscal year with $188,000 in income versus $167,000 in expenses. At the end of the fiscal year NCH had cash-on-hand in the amount of $157,000.

2009 was a very successful and busy year for the National Coalition for History on a host of legislative and regulatory issues. Despite the financial crisis, history- and archival-related federal programs either held their own or saw increased funding. However, concerns over the federal deficit will loom heavy over the federal appropriations process in 2010. So it will be even more challenging for the historical and archival communities to make sure that our financial needs are not lost in the cacophony of hundreds of other constituencies advocating for scarce discretionary federal funds.

The 2010 NCH Work Plan, which was submitted separately to the Policy Board, details the road ahead for the Coalition. This report serves as a review of NCH’s 2009 accomplishments

I. PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION

The historic election of 2008 created new opportunities for the historical and archival communities in Washington in 2009. The resignations of National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman Bruce Cole and Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein meant that a great deal of the National Coalition for History’s time in early 2009 was spent reaching out to the Obama Transition Team with regard to both of these vital positions. Unfortunately, the nominations for both posts were not made by the President until early-fall leaving the two agencies under the interim leadership of career bureaucrats.

1. Archivist of the United States

On December 19, 2008, Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein resigned for health reasons. That day the major archival groups, the National Coalition for History and individual NCH member organizations sent a letter to President-elect Obama’s Transition Team setting forth the qualifications that should be considered in selecting a new Archivist. In January, the Executive Director, along with the leadership of the major archival organizations, met with the Obama Transition Team. A list of qualified candidates was subsequently submitted.

On May 21, 2009, the NCH Executive Director testified at a hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the challenges and issues facing a new Archivist.

In September, NCH broke the story that David S. Ferriero would be nominated by the President as the new Archivist. NCH was cited by the Washington Post as the first media outlet in the nation to report the Ferriero nomination.

David S. Ferriero was sworn in as Archivist of the United States on November 13, 2009.

2. National Endowment for the Humanities Chair

NCH worked closely with the National Humanities Alliance (NHA) who took the lead role with regard to the appointment of the new NEH Chair. Jim Leach was sworn in as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities in September.

3. Obama Administration Openness and Transparency Agenda

Soon after the election, the National Coalition for History urged the incoming Obama administration to reverse the secrecy trend of the last eight years and to restore openness in the executive branch. Three separate proposals called on President-elect Obama to restore the presumption of disclosure to the Freedom of Information Act process, reform the classification and declassification processes, and ensure presidential records are handled in accordance with existing law. A diverse coalition of over 60 organizations, coordinated by the National Security Archive, developed the three proposals.

II. LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY

1. Federal Agency Appropriations

The 2009 Work Plan directed that appropriations and reauthorization issues should be a primary focus of the NCH’s advocacy efforts.

Our nation’s dire financial situation focused federal spending on stimulus-related initiatives and limited the availability of discretionary funds. Nonetheless federal funding for archival, history, and humanities programs increased almost across the board, in some cases significantly.

Before adjourning for the 2008 election, Congress passed a continuing resolution for fiscal year (FY) 2009 that ran until March 2009. Until then federal agencies operated at FY 2008 funding levels. Congress completed action on the FY 2009 appropriations bills in March, five months after the start of the fiscal year.

In May, President Obama released his proposed FY 2010 budget. Congress completed action on the FY 2010 federal budget in December 2009 with the passage of an omnibus spending bill.

a) National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

In May, NCH submitted testimony to the House and Senate Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittees on NARA and NHPRC’s FY 2010 budget.

The FY 10 omnibus appropriations bill increased funding for NARA by $10 million, or 2.3 percent, to a level of $469 million. In FY 09, NARA’s budget increased by 12 percent over FY 08 to $459 million, up from $411 million. These included increases for the hiring of new archival staff, the maintenance of research hours at NARA facilities, completion of the Electronic Records Archive, funding for repairs at the FDR Presidential Library and the establishment of the Office of Government Information Services to serve as a FOIA ombudsman for the federal government. All of these were priorities cited in testimony NCH submitted to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.

b) National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)

In a major victory, the NHPRC received its highest level of funding ever in the fiscal year (FY) 2010 budget. The NHPRC’s budget will increase by $1.75 million from the current fiscal year’s $11.25 million to $13 million in fiscal year (FY) 2010. Most importantly, the NHPRC will receive the entire $13 million in FY 2010 funding for grants. This is a sizeable increase of $3.75 million over the $9.25 million in grant money NHPRC received in FY 2009.

The Administration and the Senate had proposed allocating NHPRC funds to specific projects, thus reducing funding for the NHPRC’s core grant programs. However, due largely to lobbying by NCH, those earmarks were not included in the final conference report passed by Congress. The only designated project is $4.5 million for the initiative to provide online access to the papers of the Founding Fathers.

The NHPRC’s authorization expired on September 30, 2009. Legislation (H.R. 1556) was introduced in the House to reauthorize the NHPRC for 5 years through FY 2104 at an annual level of $20 million. In December, Senator Thomas Carper (D-DE) introduced legislation (S. 2872) to reauthorize the NHPRC for five years. As introduced, the bill would have raised the NHPRC’s authorized spending level by $500,000 each year beginning at $13 million in fiscal year (FY) 2010 and ending at $15 million in FY 2014. Unfortunately, at a markup before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee the bill was amended to cut the annual authorization for NHPRC back to $10 million per-year for five years.

NCH will continue to advocate for the passage of the House and Senate bills with an annual authorization for the NHPRC at the $20 million level.

c) U.S. Department of Education’s Teaching American History (TAH) grants program

The Department of Education’s FY 2010 budget included $119 million for the Teaching American History Grants program despite efforts by the House Appropriations Committee to cut funding to $100 million. NCH will continue to advocate for $119 million for TAH grants in FY 2011.

d) National Endowment for the Humanities

NCH continued to work in partnership with the National Humanities Alliance and the Federation of State Humanities Councils on FY 2009 and FY 2010 appropriations advocacy efforts for NEH. NEH received a $12.5 million funding increase in FY 2010 up to a level of $167.5 million. NCH worked closely with the National Humanities Alliance on appropriations issues, specifically on a “Dear Colleague” letter to House members supporting increased funding in FY 10 for the NEH. NCH served as a co-sponsor of Humanities Advocacy Day.

e) National Park Service

NCH continued to advocate for increased spending for history-related programs at the National Park Service (NPS). History and preservation programs at the NPS received generally moderate increases across the board in FY 10.

f) “Targeted Amendments” affecting NCH Constituencies: Twice this past year amendments designed to eliminate programs affecting the members of NCH constituent organizations were introduced in Congress. An amendment to the Commerce, Justice, and Science FY 2010 Appropriations bill to eliminate funding for the political science program at the National Science Foundation was introduced, but eventually defeated due to lobbying by NCH, the American Political Science Association and other stakeholders. In addition, an amendment to the transportation bill to eliminate funding for museums was also defeated.

2. Presidential Records:

In November 2001, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order (EO) 13233 giving current and former presidents, their heirs or designees, and former vice presidents broad authority to withhold presidential records or delay their release indefinitely.

On January 21, in one of his first official acts, President Obama revoked the Bush administration’s Executive Order 13233. Executive Order 13489 restores the presumption that the incumbent president, not former presidents, or their heirs and designees should have the primary authority to assert claims of executive privilege. The issuance of President Obama’s executive order on presidential records ended an eight-year effort by the historical, archival and political science communities to overturn the Bush executive order.

In January, presidential records reform legislation (H.R. 35) was the first bill passed the House. Similar legislation has cleared the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. However, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) has put a hold on the bill to prevent it from being considered on the floor. NCH continues to press the Senate leadership to bring the bill up for consideration.

3. Processing, Preservation and Declassification of Federal and Presidential Records

In the 111th Congress, legislation has been introduced to reduce the enormous backlog of records that need to be processed and declassified by the National Archives. NCH collaborated with other stakeholder groups in working to ensure passage of legislation reducing over-classification of government records, increasing public access to unclassified records, speeding the declassification process and establishing standards for the preservation and retrieval of federal and presidential electronic records. NCH will continue to press for the passage of legislation to require NARA to establish meaningful records preservation standards and aggressively ensure compliance.

4. Formula Grants for State and Local Archives

This year, the archival community was successful in getting legislation (H.R. 2256) re-introduced to establish the Partnership for the American Historical Record (PAHR) initiative, a state-based formula grant program for archives. NCH has endorsed the bill and issued a legislative alert to those on our mailing list urging them to contact their Members of Congress and ask them to co-sponsor the bill. Comparable legislation has not yet been introduced in the Senate.

II. FEDERAL AGENCY ADVOCACY:

The National Coalition for History continues to play an equally important advocacy role with federal agencies. The NCH has maintained excellent relationships with the Archivist of the United States, the Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Chief Historian of the National Park Service, the Director of the Smithsonian’s American History Museum and other key officials in the federal historical and archival bureaucracies.

1. Declassification of Federal and Presidential Records:

NCH supports the expedited processing, declassification and release of federal and presidential records.

NCH commented on a NARA draft report to Congress on reforming the presidential library system and improving procedures for the processing, preserving and declassifying presidential records.

In 2009, NCH continued to advise and monitor the meetings of the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB), the State Department’s Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, and the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress.

2. Open Government Initiatives:

Upon taking office in January, President Obama issued a memorandum to federal agencies committing his administration to an unprecedented level of openness and transparency. In March, Attorney General Holder issued a directive on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that ordered all executive branch departments and agencies to apply a presumption of disclosure when administering the FOIA. In December, the Obama administration released an Open Government Directive to federal agencies establishing stringent guidance and timelines to meet new standards of transparency and public participation.

Throughout 2009, NCH has been involved in collaborative efforts with stakeholders on a number of open government issues. NCH has been a signatory to letters addressing:

• Letters to the Obama Transition Team on selection of a new Archivist of the United States, presidential records reform, restoring presumption of disclosure under FOIA, and reform of the government’s classification system.
• Letter to the Senate urging public access to Congressional Research Service Reports.
• Letter to the Obama Administration urging that the White House Office of Administration be subject to FOIA. The Bush administration had exempted the OA from FOIA.
• Letter to the National Security Advisor urging publication of a draft executive order on declassification in the Federal Register soliciting public comment prior to final issuance.
• Letter to the Acting Archivist of the United States urging an extension of the comment period on a proposed report on the presidential library system.
• Comments to the Administration’s Open Government blog on over-classification and declassification of federal records.

3. WalMart Wilderness Battlefield Controversy:

Beginning in 2008, NCH was involved with the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) to prevent WalMart from building a “superstore” on land adjacent to the Wilderness Civil War Battlefield in Fredericksburg, VA. NCH provided the CWPT with a list of over 250 Civil War scholars who sent a letter to WalMart opposing the building of the store. NCH also joined a Wilderness Battlefield Preservation Coalition. Unfortunately, in August the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to allow WalMart to construct the facility.

III. EDUCATION AND OUTREACH

1. Conferences and Presentations:

This year the Executive Director attended meetings and/or participated in panel discussions at meetings of the American Historical Association, National Council for History Education, Organization of American Historians, Society of American Archivists and National Council on Public History.

The NCH Executive Director made a presentation on legislative advocacy during the National Humanities Alliance’s Lobby Day event in March. Humanities advocates visited Capitol Hill and distributed issue briefs and state grant data, and asked members of Congress to support increased funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities and National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

2. Publications and Action Alerts:

Throughout the year the NCH continued to provide the historical and archival communities with its electronic newsletter, the NCH Washington Update. Subscriptions to the NCH Washington Update have increased to nearly 2,000 from approximately 1,600 in 2008, and 225 people subscribe via RSS feed. Traffic at the NCH website has increased from 467,000 hits in 2008 to almost 600,000 this year.

We continue to have secondary distribution through the SEDIT list of documentary editors, as well as through a direct link from George Mason University’s History News Network web page. Anecdotally, we know that the NCH Washington Update reaches a far broader audience than the subscription numbers indicate.

NCH columns continue to reach a broad but targeted audience of historians (30,000), museum professionals (10,000), and archivists (4,000) through the publications of its constituent organizations.

As is usually the case in a presidential election year, especially one with a lame-duck president in the White House, congressional action on many major issues was left uncompleted. Much of what Congress did this year was done with an eye on laying the groundwork for the 111th Session that begins in January. Nonetheless 2008 was a very busy year for the National Coalition for History on a host of legislative, regulatory and legal issues.

The historic election of 2008 creates new opportunities for the historical and archival communities in 2009 in Washington. The unexpected early resignations of NEH Chairman Bruce Cole and Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein mean that a great deal of the National Coalition for History’s time in early 2009 will be spent on confirmation hearings after President-elect Obama nominates his candidates for those vacancies. We have already been reaching out to the Obama Transition Team with regard to both of these vital positions.

The financial crisis will loom heavy over the federal appropriations process next year. Congress has been operating under a continuing resolution since October 1, 2008. The president-elect has already made it known that his economic stimulus package will be focused on creating jobs through infrastructure revitalization, energy independence and other initiatives. So it will be even more challenging for the historical and archival communities to make sure that our financial needs are not lost in the cacophony of hundreds of other constituencies advocating for scarce federal discretionary funds.

The 2009 NCH Work Plan submitted separately to the Policy Board details the road ahead for the Coalition. This report serves as a review of what NCH accomplished in 2008.

I. CONGRESS

As noted above, the specter of the election meant Congress left many major issues unresolved, most notably a failure to enact a fiscal year 2009 federal budget. Despite the fact the Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress, their slim 51-49 majority in the Senate made it difficult to pass legislation. On a number of issues of interest to our community, important legislation sailed through the House only to die in the Senate.

1. Presidential Records

Unfortunately, the optimism I felt at the end of 2007 about the prospects for the passage of legislation to revoke the Bush administration’s Executive Order (EO) 13233 on presidential records proved unfounded. In November 2001, President George W. Bush issued EO 13233 giving current and former presidents, their heirs or designees, and former vice presidents broad authority to withhold presidential records or delay their release indefinitely.

A bill (H.R. 1255) to overturn Executive Order 13233 overwhelmingly passed the House by a vote of 333-93 in March 2007. At the time the legislation was considered in the House, the Bush administration issued a threat to veto the bill, but it passed by a veto-proof margin.

Similar legislation cleared the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee by voice vote in the summer of 2007. However, three separate Republican senators consecutively put holds on the bill and it ultimately never came to the Senate floor for a vote.

The good news is that during the campaign, President-elect Obama committed himself to revoking Executive Order 13233. NCH and other groups are already working with House and Senate staff to draft and pass legislation to strengthen the Presidential Records Act to ensure it is not left to the whim of future president’s to unilaterally determine when and under what circumstances records will be released to the public.

(NOTE: For additional information about this issue see references in Regulatory Issues and NCH Collaborations below)

2. Federal Appropriations

In 2009, for the first time since 1994, the Democrats will control both the White House and the Congress. In 2008, aside from defense appropriations, the Congress did not enact any individual appropriations bills. Before leaving for the election, Congress passed a continuing resolution that runs until March 2009 and until then federal agencies will be operating at FY 2008 funding levels. Because of increases in federal salaries and overhead costs, this means in real terms federal agencies sustained cuts of 3% or more. The new Congress is expected to address the FY 2009 appropriations bills in time for President Obama to sign them when he assumes office on January 20, 2009.

Given the massive budget deficits that will be generated by the expected economic stimulus package, funding for discretionary federal spending programs is expected to be extremely tight in the FY ’10 budget. While one might assume that Democrats ideologically would be more sympathetic to spending for history, humanities and archival programs, such expectations must be tempered by the reality of the dire financial situation our nation currently faces.

Appropriations and reauthorization issues will remain a primary focus of the NCH’s advocacy efforts.

• National Archives and NHPRC (Financial Services & General Government Appropriations Subcommittees): On July 10, 2008, the Senate Appropriations Committee cleared the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) fiscal year 2009 appropriations bill that includes funding for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). NARA received $441.6 million, a significant $41.6 million increase over the FY ’08 enacted amount. The NHPRC would receive $8.5 million for grants and $2 million for administrative expenses.On June 25, 2008, the House Appropriations Committee cleared its version of the Financial Services and General Government fiscal year 2009 bill. NARA received $423.8 million, a $23.6 million increase over the FY ’08 enacted amount. And the NHPRC not only staved off elimination, but also received its fully authorized amount of $10 million (plus $2 million for administrative costs) for the first time in five years.

  Both bills provide approximately the same amounts for Operating Expenses ($330 Million) and the Electronic Records Archive ($67 million). The major differences are in priorities and earmarks within the Repairs and Restoration budget.

  On April 30, 2008, the National Coalition for History sent testimony for the record to the House and Senate Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittees supporting increased funding for NARA and the NHPRC.

• Education (Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittees): In the FY ’09 draft House and Senate Labor, HHS, Education budgets, the Teaching American History (TAH) grants program would receive a funding level of approximately $120 million BB the amount appropriated to the program over the past six fiscal years.The NCH will advocate to ensure that $120 million continues to be appropriated to the Department of Education for the Teaching American History program.

  In the 111th Congress Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV), the originator of the TAH program, will relinquish the chair the Senate Appropriations Committee because of his declining health. While Senator Byrd will no doubt continue to be a strong advocate for the TAH program, the reality is that the historical community needs to identify new champions for program to ensure its long-term viability.

• National Endowment for the Humanities (Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittees): The FY ’09 budget for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) never got beyond the subcommittee stage in the House and no numbers came out of the Senate.
• National Park Service (Interior and Related Agencies): As with the NEH, FY ’09 numbers for the National Park Service and its various history and preservation programs did not emerge during the budget process in 2008.

3. NARA & NHPRC Oversight Hearing

On May 14, 2008, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services and International Security held an oversight hearing on the programs of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). This was the first NARA oversight hearing in recent memory. Dr. Martin J. Sherwin, University Professor of History at George Mason University, and winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, represented the National Coalition for History at the hearing.

Two other NCH member organizations also testified at the hearing: Tom Blanton, Director of the National Security Archive, and Dr. James Henderson, former Maine state archivist representing the Society of American Archivists.

4. Presidential Historical Records Preservation Law (PL 110-404)

In October, Congress enacted into law, the “Presidential Historical Records Preservation Act of 2008” (PL 110-404, S. 3477) to promote funding to preserve, digitize, and provide online access to documents of historical significance that may not have received funding in the past. In December, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee issued a report making it clear it that the new programs created under the law should not supersede existing categories of grants in competing for National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) funds. The committee report states NHPRC should have the discretion to determine what eligible programs are given priority out of existing funds.

The National Coalition for History opposed the original version “Presidential Historical Records Act” and in a letter to the Committee called for many of these same changes that were made in the bill before it was enacted and in the final report language.

The law creates two new NHPRC grant programs. The first would provide funding to institutions to preserve documents associated with presidents who do not have presidential libraries under the existing National Archives Presidential Library system. Under the second program, the National Archives could create an electronically searchable database of historic records of servitude, emancipation, and post-Civil War reconstruction.

5. “Founding Fathers” Papers

On February 7, 2008, the Senate Judiciary Committee convened a hearing to discuss the length of time it was taking for the completion of the compilation and annotation of the papers of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, John Adams and two projects encompassing the period prior to and during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, as well as his post-presidency. Also at issue was the limited public accessibility to the finished products, especially via the Internet.

On May 6, 2008, Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein submitted a report to Congress, entitled “The Founders Online.” To take advantage of existing online publication efforts of completed volumes and to accelerate the online publication of unfinished volumes, NARA proposed engaging a sole service provider to undertake transcription and document encoding for all Founding Father papers that have not yet been edited.

On November 18, 2008, the NHPRC announced a $250,000 grant award to the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities on behalf of Documents Compass for a pilot project to transcribe and encode for online and print publication documents on behalf of documentary editing projects from the Founding Era of the nation.

The “Presidential Historical Records Preservation Act of 2008” noted above, gives he Archivist of the United States the Archivist the authority to appoint an advisory committee to review the progress of the Founding Fathers projects funded by the NHPRC. The advisory committee may also, in consultation with the Founding Fathers projects, set appropriate completion goals.

6. “Electronic Communications Preservation Act” (H.R. 5811)

On July 9, 2008, the House of Representatives passed the “Electronic Communications Preservation Act” (H.R. 5811). The bill would direct the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to establish standards for the capture, management, preservation and electronic retrieval of federal agency and White House e-mail communications. The bill did not see action in the Senate.

At an April 23, 2008, hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, in prepared testimony submitted for the record, NCH’s representative Dr. Anna Nelson supported the legislation.

On June 13, NCH sent a letter to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman supporting an amended version of HR 5811.

7. “Partnership for the American Historical Record” (H.R. 6056)

This year, the archival community was successful in getting legislation (H.R. 6056) introduced to establish its Partnership for the American Historical Record (PAHR) initiative, a state-based formula grant program for archives. NCH has endorsed the bill and sent out a legislative alert urging those on our mailing list to contact their legislators to co-sponsor the bill. The legislation did not see action this year, but it will likely be reintroduced in the 111th Congress.

II. FEDERAL REGULATORY ISSUES:

1. President-elect Obama’s Transition Team

The unexpected resignations of NEH Chairman Bruce Cole and Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein mean that a great deal of the National Coalition for History’s time in early 2009 will be spent on confirmation hearings after President-elect Obama nominates his candidates for those positions.

On December 19, 2008, the major archival groups, the National Coalition for History and some individual NCH members sent a letter to President-elect Obama’s Transition Team setting forth the qualifications that should be considered in selecting a new AUS.

Soon after the election, the National Coalition for History urged the incoming Obama administration to reverse the secrecy trend of the last eight years and to restore openness in the executive branch. Three separate proposals called on President-elect Obama to restore efficiency and openness to the Freedom of Information Act process, reform the classification system to reduce over-classification and facilitate greater declassification, and ensure presidential records are handled in accordance with existing law and Congress’ intent.

A diverse coalition of groups over 60 organizations, convened by the National Security Archive, developed the three proposals.

2. Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB)

In early 2008, the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB) released its first report to the President providing recommendations for improving the Federal government’s declassification system. The Board examined 15 issues and made 49 separate recommendations to improve the current declassification system.

Among other issues, the Board recommended a more comprehensive approach to declassification within the Federal government, including the establishment of a National Declassification Center. It called for prioritizing the government’s declassification efforts to ensure a greater focus on “historically significant” records, especially presidential records, with greater involvement of historians and historical advisory panels in setting these priorities.

Throughout 2008, the PIDB held a number of public meetings seeking input on how best to implement the findings in its report.

A number of NCH member groups testified at these hearings. Witnesses included Dr. Richard Breitman and Dr. Arnita Jones (AHA), Tom Blanton (National Security Archive), and Dr. Brian Martin (History Associates).

3. Presidential Records

On September 5, 2008, the Center for American Progress Action sent a letter from thirty prominent historians to the leadership of the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate urging reform of the Presidential Records Act. The American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians and the National Coalition for History also endorsed the letter.

4. Federal Records Advisory Boards

This year, the Executive Director continued to monitor the activities of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB), the State Department’s Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress, and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

At its December meeting, Wm. Roger Louis, the chairman of the State Department’s Historical Advisory Committee warned that the future of the Department’s “Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS)” series, which is the official record of U.S. foreign policy, is in jeopardy due to mismanagement by the Office of the Historian. Underscoring his concerns, he announced his resignation from the Committee. As a result of the on-going controversy, the NCH will be actively monitoring the activities of the Historical Advisory Committee in 2009.

III. HISTORY COALITION INITIATIVES

NCH Collaborative Efforts

Because of our small size, the National Coalition for History often engages in collaborative efforts with pro-government transparency groups to achieve results on Capitol Hill and with federal agencies.

1. Historians and Archivists Litigation v. Vice President Cheney

On September 8, 2008, the Citizen’s for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) along with two eminent historians and three organizations of historians and archivists filed a complaint against Vice President Cheney, the Office of the Vice President (OVP), the Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein, and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), challenging their exclusion of a vast majority of Vice President Cheney’s papers from the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and the obligation to preserve them for the American public.

Joining CREW in the lawsuit were the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the Society of American Archivists and historians Stanley Kutler and Martin Sherwin. The petitioners argued that without judicial intervention on January 20, 2009, the vast majority of Vice President Cheney’s records will not be transferred to NARA for eventual release to the public, but instead will remain under the vice president’s custody and control.

On September 20, 2008, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a preliminary injunction ordering the office of vice president Dick Cheney to preserve all records related to his office and the performance of his duties.

Officials representing the National Archives and the OVP have been deposed by CREW. As this is written the case is still pending.

2. Protecting Wilderness Civil War Battlefield from Encroachment by Wal-Mart

In 2008, Wal-Mart, Stores, Inc. announced plans to build a 145,000-square-foot “Wal-Mart Supercenter” in Orange County, Virginia, a quarter-mile from the Wilderness Battlefield National Park. In October, the National Coalition for History joined a Wilderness Battlefield Coalition that had been formed to fight the development. The coalition was organized by NCH member organization the Civil War Preservation Trust.

On December 11, in a letter to Wal-Mart President and CEO Lee Scott, 253 historians from throughout the country urged the retail giant to reconsider plans to build the proposed store adjacent to the Wilderness Battlefield. NCH provided the Wilderness Coalition with a list of military and Civil War historians that ultimately endorsed the letter.

3. Smithsonian Institution Transparency

In January 2008, the National Coalition for History, OpenTheGovernment.org and other organizations met with staff for members of Congress on the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents to urge the revision of Directive 807, a policy that would, among other things, broaden the Smithsonian’s ability to withhold certain business and financial information from the public.

Soon thereafter NCH and thirty other signatories sent a letter to the Smithsonian stating “the guardian of our Nation’s treasures…a great institution funded largely by taxpayer dollars to house, maintain, study, and exhibit so many diverse elements comprising our national heritage,” should set an example of transparency.

III. EDUCATION AND OUTREACH

1. Conferences and Presentations:

This year the Executive Director attended meetings and/or participated in panel discussions at meetings of the American Historical Association, Council of State Archivists, Organization of American Historians, Society of American Archivists and National Council on Public History.

The NCH Executive Director made a presentation on legislative advocacy during the National Humanities Alliance’s Lobby Day event. On March 4, 94 humanities advocates visited more than 127 House and Senate offices representing 23 states and the District of Columbia. These grassroots advocates distributed issue briefs and state grant data, and asked members of Congress to support increased funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities and National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

2. Publications and Action Alerts:

Throughout the year the NCH continued to provide the historical and archival communities with the weekly electronic communication, the NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE. The website’s blogging capability has proved invaluable. For example, when Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein resigned in December, the news was sent out as an alert to Washington Update subscribers minutes after the news was released.

Direct subscriptions to the UPDATE have increased to approximately 1,870 up from 1,750 direct subscribers last year. We currently have 160 subscribers to our RSS feed, up significantly from 102 subscribers at the end of last year. We continue to have secondary distribution through the SEDIT list of documentary editors, as well as through a direct link from George Mason University’s History News Network web page. Anecdotally, we know that the UPDATE reaches a far broader audience than the subscription numbers indicate.

NCH columns continue to reach a broad but targeted audience of historians (30,000), museum professionals (10,000), and archivists (4,000) through the newsletters of professional organizations. These include the American Historical Association Perspectives, the Organization of American Historians OAH Newsletter, the Society of American Archivists Archival Outlook, the National Council on Public History Public History News, and the American Association for State and Local History AASLH Dispatch. Articles and news briefs were also reprinted in institutional supporter newsletters and online via the History News Network.

IV. NCH ADMINISTRATION

1. Website, Congressional Quarterly and CapWiz:

The NCH Website was completely redesigned in 2007 thanks to a significant contribution from the History Channel. It is administered by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. In 2009 we will be in the third of a five-year contract with them to administer the site. Changes were made to the website this year to make it more user friendly and allow us to highlight breaking news, testimony and regulatory comments made by NCH on the front page of the site.

NCH subscribes to Congressional Quarterly.com to provide federal legislative and budget tracking at a cost of $11,000. The National Humanities Alliance shares usage CQ with us, cutting the cost to $5,500 for NCH. CQ has proved invaluable in providing information on the federal budget before it is available publicly. And its bill search and bill tracking ability has freed up a great deal of the Executive Director’s time.

The Cap Wiz legislative on-line lobbying tool was not at all effective in generating grassroots support for NCH issues in 2008. Given the anticipated difficult budget year in 2009, in consultation with Chair Arnita Jones, a decision was made to terminate NCH’s annual purchase of CapWiz that was shared with the National Humanities Alliance and the Federation of State Humanities Councils. The current contract expires on December 31, 2008. Our use of the system was minimal (we only generated 300 e-mails in all of 2008). Given these paltry numbers, the annual $4,000 cost could not be justified.

2. Combined Federal Campaign:

Unfortunately, this year NCH failed to qualify for the 2010 Combined Federal Campaign (CFC). In recent years, the government has set more rigid qualification standards. NCH failed to qualify because it was not “doing business” in 15 states as required by the CFC. Distributing materials, like the NCH newsletter, does not meet this requirement. This literally means that the Executive Director must have physically made presentations in 15 different states over the past three years to qualify and we fell three states short.

Since we already qualified for the 2009 campaign, we should continue to receive income through the middle of the year. But we will not receive any income through the second half of 2009 and the first six months of 2010. So we need to account for this lost revenue. We plan to reapply next year for the 2011 CFC.

NCH received a total of $7,263 in CFC donations last year and halfway through this year we have received $3,100.

3. Audit:

One of the requirements to qualify for the CFC is an annual audit. When it became obvious that we would not qualify, NCH did not perform an audit in 2008. As a result, the $6K budgeted for that in the 2008 budget was not spent. Again, this money not spent skews the bottom line in NCH’s favor.

At the time it appeared we would perform the audit, price quotes we received were well above the $6,000 we had budgeted. We do plan to have a two-year audit of 2007 and 2008 performed in 2009. However, we should anticipate “sticker shock” in seeking proposals for the audit. We have conservatively budgeted $12,000 for the audit, but it may be more. While we do need an audit performed, it should be noted that spending $10,000 on an annual audit to qualify for what usually results in $7,000 in income from the CFC is not cost-effective. We may want to consider a two-year audit schedule.

NCH’s application to the Internal Revenue Service to make the organization’s 501(c)(3)-tax status permanent was approved.

4. Membership Update:

NCH’s membership stands at 51 organizations (the exact same number as 2007), which includes all those groups whose dues are current. To date we have received $178,200 in member dues in FY ’08 compared with $183,00 all of last year.

We have counted 78 organizations on our membership roster in recent years. Although a number of them have not paid dues for more than a year, they continue to be listed as active members. The vast majority of these are in the contributing member category (< $1,000 annually). Those groups that have not paid in 2007 and 2008 are going to be put into a suspended status so that we don’t factor them into our 2009 income projections. NCH welcomed the Civil War Preservation Trust as our only new member this year. Perhaps most disconcerting is the fact that our annual internet appeal through the NCH Washington Update only generated a paltry $465 in contributions in 2008. It might help if individual member organizations could include a plea for donations in their own publications and I plan to include one in the various columns I write for member groups.

December 1, 2007, marked my first anniversary as Executive Director of the National Coalition for History (NCH). It is hard to believe that 12 months have passed since my predecessor Bruce Craig spent a month prepping me for what has been the most rewarding year of my professional career.

NCH has accomplished much in the past year. Perhaps the most noticeable change was our redesigned website that debuted last April. Thanks to the generosity of the History Channel, we were able to create a state-of-the-art internet presence. As a result of the blogging ability the site offers, there were literally times this year that I was able to post agency funding levels from a House or Senate appropriations subcommittee markup within an hour of the end of the hearing.

It has been a very busy year on Capitol Hill and with the federal agencies of interest to the historical community. Here is a wrap-up of some of the major stories of 2007.

I. ADVOCACY

For the first time in over a decade, the Democrats had full-control of the Congress, and with it came the ability to use congressional committees to impose meaningful oversight on the Bush administration. Unfortunately, partisan bickering reached new heights between the two parties resulting in inevitable gridlock. And, as 2007 draws to a close the inter-party squabbling generated by the presidential campaigns has only made things more complicated.

1. Presidential Records Reform Act & AHA Litigation

Perhaps no issue affecting the historical and archival communities benefited from the ascendancy of the Democrats to power more than the now six year battle that the historical and archival communities have waged to overturn the Bush administration’s Executive Order (EO) 13233. Under the Presidential Records Act, presidential records are legally required to be released to historians and the public 12 years after the end of a presidential administration. In November 2001, President George W. Bush issued EO 13233 giving current and former presidents, their heirs or designees, and former vice presidents broad authority to withhold presidential records or delay their release indefinitely.

As 2007 draws to a close, I am happy to report significant victories on both the legislative and judicial fronts.

On Capitol Hill, a bill (H.R. 1255) to overturn Executive Order 13233 overwhelmingly passed the House by a vote of 333-93 in March. At the time the legislation was considered in the House, the Bush administration issued a threat to veto the bill, but it passed by a veto-proof margin.

Similar legislation cleared the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee by voice vote this past summer. However, when the Democratic leadership sought to bring the bill to the floor on September 24, Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) objected to consideration of the bill.

NCH led a coalition of organizations that met with the staff of Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to lobby to have the bill brought to the floor despite Bunning’s hold. On December 18, 2007, Senator Bunning did lift his hold. However, when the Democratic leadership sought Republican approval to bring the bill to the floor under unanimous consent, we learned another unnamed Republican had placed a hold on the bill. We will not be able to identify the person until the Senate reconvenes in late-January.

While this is disappointing, we should take heart in the fact that we have been able to force three different Republican senators to lift their holds on the bill, and that the Majority Leader has been willing to take the bill to the floor twice.

The historical and archival communities also scored a major victory in the federal courts.

Less than a month after EO 13233 was issued, a lawsuit was brought by Public Citizen on behalf of itself, the American Historical Association (AHA), National Security Archive (NSA) Organization of American Historians (OAH), Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, American Political Science Association (APSA) and historian Stanley Kutler against the federal government questioning the order’s legality.

After years of filing and counter-filings, on October 1 a federal district court judge gave historians and researchers a partial, but significant victory in the suit. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly struck down the section of the EO that allows a former president to indefinitely delay the release of records. However, the judge did not rule on the constitutionality of the Executive Order itself, narrowly crafting her decision to address only specific provisions in the order.

Unfortunately, Judge Kollar-Kotelly did not rule on the legality of the sections of the Executive Order allowing heirs and designees of former presidents, and former vice presidents, the authority to control the release of documents, calling them “unripe” since no records have yet been withheld pursuant to those provisions. However, the judge left open the right for the plaintiffs to challenge these provisions in the future.

In late-November, the Administration chose not to appeal the decision.

2. Federal Appropriations

The battle between the congressional Democrats and the White House over providing funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan caused a delay in the final passage of a federal budget for fiscal year 2008. On December 19, 2007, the Congress finally passed the FY ’08 budget, and the President is expected to sign it.

The omnibus funding package incorporated the eleven fiscal year 2008 appropriations bills that had not yet been passed by Congress. What follows are the numbers for programs of interest to the historical and archival communities. In general these programs saw significant increases in funding or were level funded.

• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA): The bill includes $315 million for operating expenses of NARA. This amount reflects a significant $35 million increase over FY ’07 and is $2.1 million more than the Administration’s request. Congress directed that the amount above the request should be targeted first to restore the public research hours that were cut in October 2006, and then to hire more archivist staff. The bill includes $58 million for the Electronic Records Archives project. It also includes $28.6 million for repairs and restoration of Archives’ facilities, an increase of $12.7 million over FY ’07.
• National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC): The NHPRC will receive $9.5 million, with $7.5 million allocated to grants and $2 million for operating expenses. This reflects an overall $2 million increase over last year. The Bush administration had once again sought to eliminate the program. As a result, NHPRC was specially targeted by NCH lobbying efforts, so this is a major victory. In report language, the Appropriations Committees expressed concern about the length of time it was taking to complete the publication of the Founding Fathers historical papers and instructed the Archivist to accelerate the process.
• Teaching American History Grants (Department of Education): The Teaching American History Grants program was funded at a level of $120 million, up slightly from the $119.7 million in FY ’07. However, the Administration had proposed cutting the program to $50 million, so again this is a victory for the historical community.
• National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): NEH would receive $147 million, a $6 million increase over last year. But after many years of cuts and level funding even this modest increase should be seen as a victory. $132.5 million in funding is allocated to Grants and Administration and $14.5 million for matching grants. Among major programs, Federal and State Partnerships will receive $32.2 million, Preservation and Access $18.6 million, Public Programs $12.9 million, Research Programs $13.2 million, Education Programs $12.8 million, We the People Initiative Grants $15.2 million and the Digital Humanities Initiative $2 million.
• National Park Service: The bill provides $25 million in funding for the Centennial Challenge program. The Centennial Challenge is a ten-year initiative to generate $2 billion in public and private matching grants to prepare for the Park Service’s Centennial celebration in 2016.
  The bill includes $7.5 million for the Preserve America program and $15.5 million for the Heritage Partnerships program. The bill also allocates $71.5 million for the historic preservation fund program. Within that account the Save America’s Treasures preservation grants program received $25 million, with $11.2 million in grants to be awarded through the normal competitive process and $13.8 allocated to specifically earmarked projects.
• Smithsonian Institution: Despite the rocky year the Smithsonian experienced in 2007, Congress reaffirmed its commitment by providing major budget increases for the Institution. The bill includes a total of $693 million for the Smithsonian, an increase of $58.2 million over FY ’07 and an increase of $15 million over the Administration’s request. The bill also includes $15 million to establish a Legacy Fund. The new fund is intended to provide a means to address the $2.5 billion backlog of major repair and restoration of the Institution’s facilities that now exist. The Legacy Fund has been designed as a public-private partnership whereby each federal dollar provided must be matched by twice that amount in private contributions before the full $15 million is made available. Assuming that the Smithsonian can raise the $30 million, the Legacy Fund would provide $45 million above the amount already included in the Facilities Capital account that is allocated $107 million in FY ’08.
• Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS): IMLS would receive $268 million, a $21 million increase over FY ’07.

3. Smithsonian Institution

2007 was perhaps the most tumultuous year in the history of the Smithsonian Institution. On March 26, Roger W. Sant, chairman of the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents Executive Committee announced that Secretary Lawrence M. Small, had resigned. Small was finally brought down by a series of articles published in March in the Washington Post exposing questionable expenses incurred by Smithsonian Secretary. Thus, ended the controversy filled, seven-year reign of the 11th Secretary of the Institution.

Cristian Samper, director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, was named Acting Secretary while the Regents conduct a nationwide search for a permanent replacement.

Later in the year, Deputy Secretary Sheila Burke and the Chief Executive Officer of Smithsonian Business Ventures Gary Beer also resigned under fire.

In the fall the Smithsonian television channel quietly made its debut on satellite provider DirecTV. Ironically, development of the channel was one of the contributing factors to the departures of Small and Beer. It generated a great deal of controversy when the Smithsonian Institution first announced its exclusive deal with the Showtime Networks, Inc. to develop a television network nearly two years ago.

The Smithsonian claims that the fears that access to their holdings by filmmakers would be impacted have proved unfounded. From Jan. 1, 2006 to Aug. 3, 2007, the Smithsonian said it received more than 210 requests to film at the Institution. Of these, only two were declined due to the creation of Smithsonian Networks.

4. Freedom of Information Act Reform Bill

Legislation (S. 2488) to implement the first reforms to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in more than a decade has been sent the President’s desk for signature after Congress passed the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act (OPEN Government Act). The bill cleared Congress in mid-December.

The legislation improve transparency in the Federal Government’s FOIA process by:

• Restoring meaningful deadlines for agency action under FOIA;
• Imposing real consequences on federal agencies for missing FOIA’s 20-day statutory deadline;
• Clarifying that FOIA applies to government records held by outside private contractors;
  Establishing a FOIA hotline service for all federal agencies; and
• Creating a FOIA Ombudsman to provide FOIA requestors and federal agencies with a meaningful alternative to costly litigation.

NCH issued a legislative alert urging passage of the FOIA bill and was involved in a broad-based coalition that worked to push passage of the legislation.

5. Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library

On September 24, by voice vote, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1664, a bill that would authorize the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to make pass-through grants towards the establishment of a Woodrow Wilson presidential library in Staunton, Virginia. A private foundation currently owns and manages Wilson’s birthplace, a museum and library in Staunton.

H.R. 1664 only authorizes that Federal funds can be used to make grants to the Wilson library. Separate language in an appropriations bill would be needed to provide the Archives the funds needed to make the grants.

In addition, the legislation sets stringent requirements that must be met before any federal dollars may be appropriated. First, the private entity running the Wilson library must certify that it has raised double the amount of the proposed federal grant from non-Federal sources. Second, the grant is conditioned on the Wilson library coordinating its programs with other Federal and non-Federal historic sites, parks, and museums that are associated with the life of Woodrow Wilson. Finally, the bill prohibits the use of Federal grant funds for the maintenance or operation of the library.

The legislation also makes it clear that the library will not be considered part of the existing Presidential Library System and that the National Archives will have no involvement in the actual operation of the library.

The bill had the unanimous support of the Virginia delegation in the House. Companion legislation (S. 1878) has been introduced by Senator James Webb (D-VA), with the co-sponsorship of Virginia’s senior Senator John Warner (R-VA). The bill has been referred to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGA) Committee.

While the Bush administration took no position on H.R. 1664, the National Archives has sent a letter to the Senate in opposition to the bill. Archivist Allen Weinstein does not feel that NARA should be used as a pass-through for federal funds to a private entity. Private institutions usually receive funds through specific earmarks in appropriations bills.

NCH has been asked by the Senate HSGA Committee to submit comments on the bill. In the past, the NCH opposed similar legislation since it could set a precedent of funding private presidential sites with NARA funds. However, the Executive Director of the Wilson Presidential Library has asked the NCH to reconsider its position, and the institution has joined NCH. The legislation is on the agenda for consideration by the NCH Board at its January 2008 meeting.

6. Testimony and Regulatory Issues:

• On March 1, 2007, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and the National Archives held a hearing to consider presidential records; specifically the impact Executive Order (E.O.) 13233 has had on the disposition of those materials. Representatives from four NCH member organizations testified at the hearing: Steven L. Hensen, Past President of the Society of American Archivists; Dr. Anna K. Nelson representing the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations; Tom Blanton of the National Security Archive; and Dr. Robert Dallek representing the American Historical Association. Also testifying was Scott Nelson of the Public Citizen Litigation Group, the lead counsel in AHA’s lawsuit in federal district court noted above.

• On November 13, 2007, the National Coalition for History (NCH) submitted comments on a proposed regulation issued by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) implementing changes in the management of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) dealing with, among other issues, the handling of presidential records. The section of the proposed regulation dealing with presidential records stated that “incumbent and former presidents have at least 90 days in which to invoke Executive Privilege to deny access to the requested information.” NCH asserted that the section runs counter to the recent decision in American Historical Association v. National Archives and Records Administration, Civ. No. 01-2447 (CKK), Slip op. at 34 (D.D.C. Oct, 1, 2007), which said it was unlawful for NARA to rely on Executive Order 13233, Section 3(b) that allows former presidents an unlimited amount of time to review FOIA requests. The comments also pointed out that the proposed regulatory changes to FOIA ran counter to regulations already issued by NARA to implement the President Records Act that allows the Archivist to disclose any records at his discretion after a former president has had at least 30 calendar days to review them. NCH’s comments mirrored those submitted by its Policy Board member, the National Security Archive.

7. Comings and Goings

• On August 30, the National Park Service (NPS) announced the long-awaited selection of Dr. Robert K. Sutton as Chief Historian of the National Park Service. Dr. Sutton has been Superintendent of the Manassas National Battlefield Park since 1995. Dr. Sutton assumed his new position on October 1, 2007. The Chief Historian position had remained vacant for over two years since the retirement of Dr. Dwight Pitcaithley in June 2005.

At the National Archives and Records Administration, three senior officials announced their departure or retirement and one important vacancy was filled.

• J. William Leonard, Director of the Information Security Oversight Office, who retired from the post at year’s end, agreed to become Senior Counselor to Archivist Allen Weinstein beginning in January 2008.
• On October 1, Executive Director Max J. Evans announced that he would be retiring from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) on January 31, 2008. Mr. Evans, who was appointed in January 2003, will be assuming a new position with the Latter Day Saints Church Historical Department in Salt Lake City, Utah. No timetable has been given for the naming of a replacement.
• In April, John Constance, Director of Congressional Affairs and Communications, departed after serving as the National Archives liaison to Capitol Hill for 14 years. Susan Cooper was named acting director of Congressional Affairs and Communications, and David McMillen assumed responsibilities as acting congressional liaison within the Congressional Affairs and Communications staff.
• Terri Garner was named as the new director of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. From 2005 to the present, Ms. Garner served as Executive Director of the Bangor Museum and Center for History. Garner assumed her duties on November 5, 2007.

II. HISTORY COALITION INITIATIVES

1. NCH Collaborative Efforts

Because of our small size, the National Coalition for History engages in collaborative efforts with other like-minded groups to achieve results on Capitol Hill and with federal agencies.

• In April, the National Coalition for History, the American Historical Association and eighteen other organizations wrote to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein to express concerns about the possible destruction of records relating to the cases of detainees being held at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The organizations’ letter asked the Attorney General and the Archivist to ensure that a complete set of the records is retained, as a set, in order to ensure an accurate historical and legal record.
• In May, NCH intervened in a dispute over accessibility to records at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). LANL decided it would no longer permit historians and other researchers to have access to its archival records because Los Alamos National Security (LANS), the private contractor that now operates the Lab, said it had “no policy in place” that would allow such access. Alex Wellerstein, a graduate student at Harvard had sought copies of Lab records on the history of nuclear secrecy policy, and he had been led to believe that access to such material would be granted, in accordance with past practice. Instead, Mr. Wellerstein was told that he should pursue his research through the Freedom of Information Act. NCH mobilized other like-minded groups and spoke directly with officials at LANL, which later clarified its access policies.
• The membership of the House Humanities Caucus that was initiated in 2005 grew to more than 79 members in 2007. Under the leadership of Representatives David Price (D-NC) and Phil English (R-PA), the caucus became a vehicle to build Congressional support for increasing the funding levels for the NEH and the NHPRC. The Senate Cultural Caucus chaired by Senators Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Norm Coleman (R-MN), now has more than 30 members. Once again, during the National Humanities Alliance annual lobby day event, history coalition representatives played an important role in securing member “sign-ons” to the new caucus.

2. Formula Grant Initiatives:

Two state-based formula federal grant programs continue to mobilize towards the introduction of legislation in Congress. A few years ago an effort was initiated by several history coalition member organizations to create federal formula grants for the museum community. The NCH is a founding member of the “Federal Formula Grant Coalition,” being led by the American Association for State and Local History. It is likely that legislation will be introduced in Congress in 2008.

The archival community continues to work towards the introduction of legislation to establish its Partnership for the American Historical Record (PAHR) initiative, a state-based formula grant program for archives. NCH member organizations the Council of State Archivists and the Society of American Archivists have found a congressional sponsor for their bill and it will likely be introduced in the House in January 2008..

3. Lost/Stolen/Missing Documents Initiative:

Since 2003 the NCH has informally monitored various on-line auction sites for lost, stolen, or missing artifacts and manuscript materials. With a grant of $20,000 provided by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), in 2004, the NCH began systematic monitoring of auction sites. However, with the departure of former-Executive Director Bruce Craig, NCH has not renewed its arrangement with NARA.

4. Federal Records Advisory Boards:

This year, I continued to attend and monitor the activities of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB), the State Department’s Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress, and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

III. EDUCATION AND OUTREACH

1. Conferences and Presentations:

A major goal that I set for 2007 was strengthening ties with member organizations: To that end, this year I attended meetings and/or participated in panel discussions at meetings of the American Historical Association, Council of State Archivists, Organization of American Historians, Society for Military Historians, Society of American Archivists, Southern Historical Association, Association for Documentary Editing, and National Council on Public History.

I made a presentation on legislative advocacy during the National Humanities Alliance’s Lobby Day event. On Tuesday, March 27, 112 humanities advocates visited more than 150 House and Senate offices representing 26 states and the District of Columbia. These grassroots advocates distributed issue briefs and state grant data, and asked members of Congress to support increased funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities and National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
I was a guest lecturer at an introductory public history course at the George Washington University.

2. Publications and Action Alerts:

Throughout the year the NCH continued to provide the historical and archival communities with the weekly electronic communication, the NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE. Despite the switch of the UPDATE subscription management from H-NET to in-house, direct subscriptions to the UPDATE have increased to approximately around 1,750 direct subscribers. We currently have 102 subscribers to our RSS feed. We continue to have secondary distribution through the SEDIT list of documentary editors, as well as through a direct link from George Mason University’s History News Network web page. Since we now control our membership database it provides us with firm numbers as who our readers are and what institutions receive the update.

NCH columns continue to reach a broad but targeted audience of historians (30,000), museum professionals (10,000), and archivists (4,000) through the newsletters of professional organizations. These include the American Historical Association Perspectives, the Organization of American Historians OAH Newsletter, the Society of American Archivists Archival Outlook, the National Council on Public History Public History News, and the American Association for State and Local History AASLH Dispatch. Articles and news briefs were also reprinted in institutional supporter newsletters and online via the History News Network.

IV. NCH ADMINISTRATION

One of the things I have tried to do in my first year is to move NCH from a “mom & pop” operation to modern business practices. We’ve made a lot of progress, but we still have a ways to go.

1. Website, Congressional Quarterly and CapWiz:

Soon after taking over, I met with Roy Rosenzweig and his staff to outline the parameters of the project, and a contract was signed with the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University to develop our new website. The History Channel agreed to pay for the entire upgrade in return for a sponsorship logo on the site. The new website features include a blog, links to member organizations and government contacts, briefing papers, and .html delivery of the weekly Washington Update.

In January, NCH signed a contract with Congressional Quarterly.com to provide federal legislative and budget tracking at a cost of $10,500. Subsequently, the National Humanities Alliance agreed to share usage of CQ with us, cutting the cost to $5,250 for NCH. CQ has proved invaluable in providing information on the federal budget before it is available publicly. And its bill search and bill tracking ability has freed up a great deal of my time.

The Cap Wiz legislative grassroots-lobbying tool was put to a much greater use than in years past. In March when the House was about to consider the presidential records bill, we were able to generate 1,750 e-mails to Congress in 5 days. CapWiz was also used to generate grassroots lobbying for funding for the NHPRC, National History Day, and NEH. It was also targeted at Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) in an effort to get him to lift his hold on the presidential records legislation.

2. Combined Federal Campaign:

Once again the National Coalition for History was accepted into the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) for the 2008 work-place fund-raising drive. The history coalition participates in that campaign as a member of the Conservation, Preservation Federation of America (CPCA). NCH received a total of $7,858 in CFC donations last year and halfway through this year we have received $3,900.

3. Audit:

In the effort to comply with federal regulations requiring an annual audit, independent auditor Jeff Secker of Secker and Associates P.C. was engaged for the third year in a row to perform the annual audit. In order to facilitate the audit and better maintain the history coalition’s financial records we replaced a part-time bookkeeper with a professional accounting firm at minimal additional cost. NCH submitted an application to the Internal Revenue Service to make the organization’s 501(c)(3)-tax status permanent that is pending.

4. Membership Update:

NCH’s membership stands at 51 organizations, which counts all those groups whose dues are current. We have counted 78 organizations on our membership roster in recent years. Although a number of them have not paid dues for more than a year, they continue to be listed as active members. The vast majority of these are in the contributing member category (< $999 annually). Nonetheless, I plan on redoubling efforts to bring these smaller groups back into the fold in 2008. This coming year, for the first time we have a computerized membership database with updated contact information, which should make it easier to reestablish contact with these smaller groups. I am also going to switch from paper (snail-mail) invoices, to sending electronic invoices directly to the treasurer or relevant contact for the organization. With many of these smaller groups, as the leadership turns over, regular mail tends to get misdirected to the wrong person and the dues are never paid. Membership dues are tracked by our accounting firm, so now I can identify when checks were received from an organization. Instead of billing all NCH members in January as we have in the past, I am going to try billing organizations in the quarter in which their contribution was received in 2007. This will avoid the situation where organizations that paid in the fall get another invoice in January. As a result, many are less likely to renew. The other major reason to do this is to improve the cash flow of NCH. Since a majority of groups pay right after they are invoiced in January, we have a large amount of cash reserves in the first quarter and then by the end of the fiscal year we are left in a precarious financial state. NCH welcomed the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library as a new member this year. We have also received a verbal commitment from the Civil War Preservation Trust to join by the end of the year. We are also awaiting word from a very large non-profit that has an internal request pending before its leadership to join NCH. Also, a number of member organizations raised their contribution levels in 2007: the American Historical Association, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Policy, the Society of American Archivists, the History Channel, the Council of State Archivists, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, the Association of American University Presses, the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture, and the Center for History & New Media To date, several member organizations have yet to submit their annual donation, have not meet donation targets, or have reduced their annual contribution. We had only one sustaining member ($3,000+) reduce their contribution this year and we lost only two institutional members ($1,000+). These include the National History Center, ABC CLIO, Western History Association, National Council for the Social Studies, American Society for Environmental History, California Council for the Promotion of History, Conference Group for Central European History, Coordinating Council for Women in History, Florida Council for the Social Studies, Forest History Society, German Studies Association, H-NET, Indiana Association of Historians, Institute for Historical Study, the Manuscript Society, National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, New England Historical Society, Polish American Historical Association, Society for the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, Society for History Education, Inc., Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies, the Societies of California, Ohio, Southwest Archivists, and the Southern Association for Women Historians.

I. ADVOCACY AND POLICY

Appropriations:
When the 109th Congress adjourned sine die in December, Republican control of Congress came to an end.  Left unfinished were eleven outstanding FY 2007 appropriation bills – bills that fund virtually all domestic federal agencies.  In December 2006, the incoming Democratic leadership decided to extend the current levels of federal agency funding through the rest of the fiscal year, thus allowing lawmakers to focus attention on the FY 2008 budget.   As a consequence, much of the National Coalition for History’s (NCH) work (as well as that of all other stakeholder communities) in the realm of appropriations for 2007 went unrealized as all federal agencies whose budgets were not approved by the close of the 109th Congress – including all those of key concern to the history and archives communities – in FY 2006, will operate within the fiscal confines of 2006 levels. Hence, the history coalition’s appropriation’s work in 2006, in essence, served double duty for FY 2007.

FY 2006 funding levels, for the most part, are lower than what was proposed in FY 2007.  For the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) the agency will receive an operating budget of $325.535 million – some $12 million less than the $338 million that was requested by the president for FY 2007.  In the NARA budget, there is one winner – the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).  The commission budget is slotted at $7.425 million — $5.5 million for grants and $2 million for administrative costs; this represents a half million increase over what most insiders expected the House and Senate would have agreed to for the NHPRC in FY 2007.  Another winner is the Department of Education’s “Teaching American History” initiative, which will see a funding level of $121 million  – the amount appropriated to the program in FY 2006 and the same as proposed by Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) in the Senate for FY 2007; this figure is some $71 million more than recommended by President Bush in his FY 2007 budget proposal.  The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is slotted to receive $140.949 million –  about what was proposed for the agency in FY 2007 by President Bush; this will probably mean some moderate belt-tightening for the agency.

With the control of Congress now squarely in the hands of the Democrats, and with the fiscally conservative decision by the incoming Democratic appropriation chiefs, President Bush realized his overall budget recommendation for FY 2007 – that being “level funding” for most domestic agencies.  Ironically, it took a change in control of Congress from the Republicans to the Democrats to achieve the fiscally-conservative goal that the president all along sought for domestic agencies in FY 2007.

Testimony Submissions/Congressional and Agency Advocacy:
This year, the history coalition as well as several of its member organizations, submitted written testimony to Congress on behalf of many federal agencies and programs, including the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

The history coalition also continued its tradition of providing Congressional staff, lawmakers, and agency policy makers advice and at times constructive criticism of various legislative measures and regulatory actions under consideration.  Of particular note this year was the history coalition’s work on the Higher Education Act (S. 609), preliminary discussions on amendments to the “No Child Left Behind” reauthorization, and an ill-conceived proposal (H.R. 4846) titled, “To Authorize Grants for Contributions Toward the Establishment of the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library.”

The membership of the House Humanities Caucus that was initiated in 2005 grew to more than sixty members; in 2006, due to the leadership of Representatives David Price (D-NC) and James Leach (R-IA), the caucus became a vehicle to build Congressional support for increasing the funding levels for the NEH and the NHPRC.  Once again, during the National Humanities Alliance annual lobby day event, history coalition representatives played an important role in securing member “sign-ons” to the new caucus.

Formula Grant Initiatives: 
This year the archival community launched its “Partnership for the American Historical Record” (PAHR) initiative – a major new legislative effort designed to increase the authorization and appropriation of the NHPRC to a figure in excess of $10 million (the NHPRC’s current authorization); new monies would be used to fund the start-up of a state-based formula grant program for archives.

Similarly, work continued on a second state-based formula grant program that two years ago was initiated by several history coalition member organizations to benefit the museum community.  The history coalition is a founding member of the “Federal Formula Grant Coalition.”  In these two advocacy efforts special recognition goes to NCH member organizations the Society of American Archivists, Council of State Archivists, the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators and the American Association for State and Local History.

“Teaching American History” Initiative: 
When the 110th Congress convenes, Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) will become Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.  Byrd, the prime mover behind the “Teaching American History” (TAH) that is administered through the Department of Education (ED) continues to provide leadership and direction for this initiative.  Once again this year history coalition and member organization representatives met with Senator Byrd’s staff to insure that the initiative would continue to be funded at about $121 million and to address other program-related concerns.

Following up on one of last year’s major advocacy accomplishments of seeing language inserted into the FY-2005 ED appropriation bill setting aside a portion of the TAH appropriation go to the support of “national programs” (approximately $3.6 million).  In June, the history coalition and several member organizations representatives were part of a technical working group that participated in an ED-sponsored planning workshop designed to lay the foundation for one of the programs being funded out of this special set-aside – a national clearinghouse to support teaching American history. The clearinghouse will assist the field in promoting high-quality, content-rich professional development to teachers of American history.

Advocacy Partnering:
Through its partnerships with various humanities and preservation organizations and coalitions (especially the National Humanities Alliance, Americans for National Parks, and OpentheGovernment.org) the NCH also continued its long-term support of National Park Service historic preservation programs (including the Historic Preservation Fund, “Save America Treasures” program), the Library of Congress, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.  This year, during its April 2006 meeting, the NCH Policy Board voted to have the history coalition become a founding member the Federal Formula Grant Coalition – a coalition advocating a state formula grant program for museums.  During this meeting, the Policy Board also passed a resolution in support of the proposed state formula grant program for archives (PAHR).  The NCH also joined the “Net Neutrality Coalition,” a group of organizations with an interest in the “net neutrality” issue.  To that end, the NCH co-signed letters with other members of the coalition a number of communications to members of Congress on this issue.

Freedom of Information Authorizing Legislation and Public Access Declassification Board:
During the 109th Congress several legislative measures were introduced and considered relating to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and government openness.  Congress, however, failed to enact any meaningful reform in the realm of government openness.

On the positive side, the Public Access Declassification Board (PIDB) – the board envisioned by the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan to provide oversight and public involvement in matters relating to government openness – became a reality and began meeting on a routine basis in 2006.   NCH Executive Director Bruce Craig served as a panelist in the opening session of the PIDB and provided comments and suggestions to the board on its direction and potential future.

History Education Authorizing Legislation:
While 2005 saw a number of legislative issues relating to history education become a reality (i.e. Senator Lamar Alexander’s Presidential and Congressional academies).  Several bills were introduced in this first session of the 109th Congress: i.e. a re-authorization of the Higher Education Act (S. 609); “American History Achievement Act” (S. 860); “American History for Freedom” Act (S. 1614 / H.R. 2858) –  the latter legislation is the first bill in recent years to provide funding for American history education at the post-secondary school level.  With the exception of a temporary extension of the Higher Education Act, none of these measures were enacted during the 109th Congress.

With the anticipated consideration of the “No Child Left Behind” reauthorization in 2007-08, NCH member organization the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) began assembling a working-group of interested parties to begin discussion focusing on constructive reform of the NCLB measure. NCH representatives have attended several of these meetings and will continue to do so in 2007.

Legislative and Policy Interventions on Behalf of the National Parks and Historic Sites:
The NCH continued its support of the Heritage Area Partnership Act (S. 760 and related versions S. 203 / S. 243) – legislation that seeks to establish a national policy on the creation and establishment of national heritage areas.  Unfortunately, Congress did not enact this legislation during the 109th Congress.

In December 2005 the history coalition provided critical comments in a detailed 7-page assessment (which also served as a model letter for member organization comment submissions) of the draft rewrite of NPS Management Policies.  In 2006, the NPS announced changes to the document, generally consistent with NCH and its member organization’s positions.

Staff continued to coordinate meetings between NCH member organizations and NPS officials in an effort to prod the bureau along to fill the NPS Chief Historian position vacancy that came open last year following the retirement of veteran Chief Historian, Dwight Pitcaithley.  Late in 2006, shortly after the appointment of Mary Bomar as the new NPS Director, a vacancy announcement was posted on USA JOBS seeking qualified applicants from “all sources.”  The NCH continues to monitor developments as the bureau moves forward in filling this critical agency position.

Other Legislative Initiatives:
In toto, the history coalition monitored the developments of over 80 history/archives related bills and reported on their progress to readers of our weekly publication the NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE.  Of particular interest to the history and archives communities were: the “Artists Contribution to American Heritage Act” (S. 372 and similar version of the “Artists Museum Partnership Act” — H.R. 1120 / S.372) – a measure that sought to provide tax incentives for artists, scholars and writers to donate their work to non-profit entities; the “Presidential Sites Improvement Bill” (S. 431 / H.R. 927) – legislation designed to provide a funding stream for these unique historic sites; and “To Authorize Grants for Contributions Toward the Establishment of the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library (H.R. 4846) – a bill the NCH opposed that sets a dangerous precedent of funding private presidential sites with NARA funds.  In part due to the NCH objections, in the closing hours of the 109th Congress, the Senate did not act on the bill and let it die.

In summary, the 109th Congress was not exactly stellar in terms of enacting legislation of interest to the history and archive communities.  Congress did extend the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (P.L. 109-05), it established the Sand Creek Massacre site as a national park unit (P.L. 109-45), it authorized the creation of a statue of Rosa Parks for placement in the Capitol (P.L. 109-116), and it created a number of new National Heritage Areas (109-338).  We can only hope that the 110th Congress will be more productive in enacting history/archives related measures.

II. HISTORY COALITION INITIATIVES AND ISSUES OF CONCERN ADDRESSED

Lost/Stolen/Missing Documents Initiative: 
Since 2003 the NCH has informally monitored various on-line auction sites for lost, stolen, or missing artifacts and manuscript materials.  With a grant of $20,000 provided by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), in 2004, the NCH began systematic monitoring of auction sites.  That work continued throughout 2006.

To date, though its contractor and principal investigator, the NCH has systematically monitored over sixty auction sites.  Well over 40,000 documents have been surveyed and over 1,000 questionable documents have been referred to NARA for action.  Of those, as of 1 October 2006, 938 document cases have been closed; 51 items remain under investigation; 12 previously unaccessioned documents have been retrieved and 7 stolen items have been returned to NARA.   In addition to referring documents to NARA documentary items originating from state archives (i.e. New York, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, and West Virginia) as well as documents originating from several foreign countries (i.e. the Russian Federation, Bolivia, and Peru) were referred to appropriate officials for action.

Through the NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE and articles that appeared in national publications and news websites, a concerted effort was made to raise public awareness of the stolen and mishandled documents issue.  This year the contractor, principal investigator, and NARA representatives attended the PADA autograph show in New York as well as the New York Antiquarian Book Fair where brochures were distributed to dealers.

National History Center and Congressional Breakfast Seminars:
A number of years back the NCH initiated efforts to hold a series of Congressional breakfast seminars designed to inject a historical contextual dimension into policy discussions on Capitol Hill.  In 2004 that activity was transferred to the National History Center to administer.  This year, the history coalition continued to provide support for this important Congressional outreach effort.  The history coalition’s executive director continues to serve as a member of the planning committee of the National History Center.

Human Subjects Review and Oral History: 
For several years the NCH has supported the activities of member organization’s the American Historical Association (AHA) and the Oral History Association (OHA) in their ongoing effort to negotiate an agreement with the federal Office of Human Research Protections (OHRP) to exclude oral history from regulatory oversight and review by Institutional Review Boards (IRBs).  This year, the NCH continued to provide input and assistance to these member organizations in their ongoing effort to clarify the OHRP’s position on oral history.

Presidential Records Executive Order and Presidential Library Issues: 

Presidential libraries and records have long been an interest to the NCH.  On 1 November 2001, President Bush issued Executive Order (EO) 13233 entitled, “Further Implementation of the Presidential Records Act.” The order replaces President Reagan’s Executive Order 12667 (issued 18 January 1989) and reinterprets aspects of the Presidential Records Act of 1978 (PRA).  At that time several history coalition members filed suit in a federal court in Washington, D.C. seeking to overturn the Bush EO.

This year the legal battle over presidential records continued without court resolution.  NCH continued working with agency and White House officials and the lawsuit plaintiffs to see the legal challenge to its conclusion.  On 24 September 2005 federal Judge Kollar-Kotelly issued a second ruling (decided in the government’s favor) relating to the lawsuit.  Yet to be addressed is the final and most important contested issue relating to the constitutionality of certain provisions of the PRA.  To this end, Public Citizen Litigation Group filed briefs in October 2005; a decision on this last remaining (and most important) count of the plaintiffs original filing is still pending.  In addition, through periodic meetings with White House and administration officials efforts are ongoing to see that especially offensive provisions are modified in a future amended reissue of the E.O.

This year the Reagan Presidential Library continued to release of certain presidential documents (exemption P-2, P-5 records) as did the George Bush Presidential Library.  The history coalition monitored these releases with a particular eye toward library redactions and reported findings in the NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE.

In 2005, the NCH Executive Director participated on a task force on presidential libraries that examined the museum/public outreach aspects of presidential libraries sponsored by the Princeton Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies. The conference resulted in the issuance this year of a report entitled “Museums in Presidential Libraries: A First Report on Policies, Practices and Performance.”  This year, the Executive Director assisted in the review and pre-publication details of a special issue of The Public Historian (Summer 2006) devoted to the topic of presidential libraries.  In addition, NCH Executive Director Bruce Craig’s article titled “Presidential Libraries and Museums: Opportunities for Genuine Reform” (an article in response to the special-issue publication) appeared in the fall issue of The Public Historian (Fall 2006).   He also assisted the National Park Service on a steering committee in planning the bi-annual conference on presidential sites that took place in June 2006.

Throughout 2006 the NCH’s work relating to the designation of the Nixon Library and Birthplace as a presidential library continued.   For several years, the Nixon Foundation has advanced plans for the private museum to become a full-fledged NARA presidential library. Consistent with the terms of an agreement between NARA and the Nixon Foundation, in 2006 the Nixon library was brought into the NARA presidential library system.  However, the foundation’s effort to have the federal government pay for the construction of archival repository (an action that is contrary to the spirit if not letter of law as outlined in the Presidential Library Act) also continued, as did the NCH’s opposition to the foundation’s plan.  Because of the failure of FY 2007 Treasury/Transportation federal appropriations bill to be enacted, it remains unclear whether the special appropriation discussed in the House report for that bill relating to the construction of the archival facility will materialize.

Finally, for the fourth year in a row, the history coalition submitted nominations for the Paul Peck Presidential Awards for “Service to the President” and “Portrayal of a President.”  After three years of submissions in 2006 our nominee – Arthur Schlesinger Jr. – was among the selected award winners. A number of NCH Policy Board members represented the history coalition at the gala award dinner.

Records Declassification: 
This year, history coalition staff continued to attend and monitor the activities of the State Department’s Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, the Department of Defense Historical Records Declassification Advisory Panel, the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress, and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).  Periodic reports of the activities of these entities was communicated broadly through the NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE.

The declassification event of the year was the discovery of a secret reclassification effort by NARA of documents previously open to the public that was exposed by independent researcher Matthew M. Aid.  The history coalition played a key role in meetings with NARA and other government officials that resulted in the secret program being terminated.  As a result of the publicity generated by this issue, the House of Representatives conducted a hearing on records declassification.  NCH member organization The National Security Archive deserves special recognition for its aggressive pursuit of this issue throughout the year.

House Historian: 
After several years of meetings, direct and indirect advocacy efforts with Congressional staff, in 2005 the Speaker of the House appointed an official House Historian, professor Robert Remini, formerly with the University of Illinois at Chicago.  This year, the Executive Director met with Professor Remini on several occasions to discuss the working relationship between the House Historian’s office and the Clerk of the House’s companion entity, the Office of History and Preservation.  This year, professor Remini’s Congressionally-sanctioned history of the House of Representatives was published.

Proposed Closing of Library of Congress African and Middle Eastern Reading Room: 
Late this year the Library of Congress (LC) announced its intention to consolidate the African and Middle Eastern Readings Rooms in order to make room for a new exhibit.  Concerns were raised by the history coalition and others.  In the end, the LC reversed its position and abandoned the planned consolidation.

Smithsonian’s Showtime Agreement: 
In 2006, the Smithsonian Institution (SI) entered into a semi-exclusive agreement with the Showtime Network to produce a series of pay-for-view television programs that deal with the SI.  Concern was raised by documentary filmmakers, historians, scholars, archivists and others over certain provisions in the contract that grants Showtime in some instances exclusive access to Smithsonian collections, resources, and staff.  The NCH joined with other concerned parties to form an informal coalition that sought to raise public and Congressional concern over the terms of the agreement.  While there is Congressional interest in the agreement, and a GAO report has been issued, at this writing, the contract remains in place. 

III. EDUCATION AND OUTREACH

Conferences and Presentations: 
The history coalition’s education and outreach program was scaled back somewhat due to the busy Congressional calendar.  Nevertheless, the executive director made presentations during the National Humanities Alliance’s Lobby Day event and in a  “Special Humanities Briefing” sponsored by the National Humanities Alliance that targeted Congressional staff.  Update presentations were made to the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, Society of American Archivists, and National Council on Public History boards of directors.

Three presentations were made to introductory public history courses at the American University and at the George Washington University.  The Executive Director taught a policy history course at American University and delivered the David E. Brandenburg Memorial Lecture titled, “The Future of History” during American University’s Phi Alpha Theta awards dinner.

Publications and Action Alerts: 
Throughout the year the NCH continued to provide its supporters with the weekly electronic communication, the NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE. Currently, direct H-Net subscriptions to the UPDATE remains steady at around 1,500 direct subscribers with secondary distribution to 600-plus H-net editors, to the SEDIT list of documentary editors, as well as through a weekly posting on George Mason University’s History News Network webpage.

The program that was launched three years ago in which NCH ACTION ALERTS were issued separate from the NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE continued throughout 2006.  This year a half dozen ALERTS sought to motivate readers of the NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE to contact congressional representatives urging them to support programs that benefit history.  Most of the alerts focused on the funding needs of the National Archives and Records Administration (including the NHPRC) and the NEH.  Some NHPRC alerts were transmitted to targeted e-mail lists of AHA/OAH/SAA members who resided in the targeted states and Congressional districts.

NCH columns continue to reach a broad but targeted audience of historians (30,000), museum professionals (10,000), and archivists (4,000) through the newsletters of professional organizations.  These include the American Historical Association Perspectives, the Organization of American Historians OAH Newsletter, the Society of American Archivists Archival Outlook, the National Council on Public History Public History News, and the American Association for State and Local History AASLH Dispatch. Articles and news briefs were also reprinted in institutional supporter newsletters and online via the History News Network.

The Executive Director’s article titled “Presidential Libraries and Museums: Opportunities for Genuine Reform” appeared in the fall issue of The Public Historian (Fall 2006).

IV. ORGANIZATION BUILDING

Selection of New Executive Director:

This year, Bruce Craig who has served as NCH Executive Director for the last seven years informed the Policy Board that as of 1 January 2007 he was moving to Prince Edward Island, Canada, where he will begin teaching at the University of Prince Edward Island and pursuing long-neglected independent research interests.

Following the announcement a Search Committee chaired by Arnita Jones of the American Historical Association conducted a nationwide search for Craig’s successor.  Other members of the committee (in alphabetical order) were: Nancy Beaumont (Society of American Archivists), Charlene Bickford (Association for Documentary Editors), Lee Formwalt (Organization of American Historians), James Gardner (National Council on Public History), Martha Kumar (American Political Science Association) and Brian Martin (History Associates).  Lee White was selected as Executive Director. White, whose most recent position was that of Director of Government Relations for the National Society of Professional Engineers; he possesses a degree in law and a Masters degree in History from the George Mason University.

Strategic Planning: 

Last year, a Strategic Planning Committee was authorized to begin work on an update to the plan originally devised in 2001.  The board committee chaired by National Council for Public History NCH representative James Gardner assisted by History Associates’s Brian Martin and with input from additional contributors from the history coalition’s diverse membership completed its work and reported out a revised strategic plan that was approved by the NCH Policy Board in December 2006.  The plan was posted to the NCH web page.

Internships:
The history coalition’s student intern program continued with the part-time assistance of two student interns –– Nathaniel Kulyk and Emily Weisner (both from The American University) assisted the executive director in the totality of the NCH operations.

Grant and Other Special Funding:
A grant application was approved by NARA for the second year in a row to support of the Stolen Documents Monitoring initiative.  Once again the National Coalition for History was accepted into the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) for the 2007 work-place fund-raising drive.  The history coalition participates in that campaign as a member of the Conservation, Preservation Federation of America (CPCA).  Partly as a result of the annual internet solicitation posting by the Society for History in the Federal Government in the 2006 CFC campaign pledges to the NCH topped $9,000.

Audit:
In the effort to comply with federal regulations requiring an annual audit, independent auditor Jeff Secker of Secker and Associates P.C. was engaged for the second year in a row to perform the annual audit.  In order to facilitate the audit and better maintain the history coalition’s financial records a contract bookkeeper was hired in 2006.

Membership Update:
The history coalition is pleased to welcome several new members: The National History Center and the Florida Council for the Social Studies.  Also, a number of member organizations also raised their contribution levels; they include: ABC CLIO, American Historical Association, Association for Documentary Editing, Center for History and New Media, The History Channel, Mid-Atlantic Archives Conference, and the Society for Military History.  To date, several member organizations have yet to submit their annual donation, have not meet donation targets, or have reduced their annual contribution: American Society for Legal History, Conference Group for Central European History, H-NET Humanities On-line, Phi Alpha Theta, Polish American Historical Association, Society of Southwest Archivists, National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, The Manuscript Society, and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers.

I. ADVOCACY AND POLICY

Appropriations: In spite of massive cuts in most domestic programs caused largely by the ongoing war in Iraq, in 2005 history and archives programs overall faired well in the realm of federal appropriations.  Achieving this, however, particularly in an environment of fiscal austerity was no easy task.

Testimony Submissions: This year, the National Coalition for History (NCH), as well as several of its member organizations, submitted written testimony to Congress on behalf of two federal agencies: the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).  2005 saw the launching of the now 60-member plus House Humanities Caucus, a new tool for building broader Congressional support for the NEH.  During the National Humanities Alliance annual lobby day event, history coalition representatives played an important role in securing many of the member “sign-ons” to the new caucus.  As a result of all these efforts, the NEH “We the People” (WTP) history initiative received another multi-million dollar funding increase; the NEH realized a boost in FY 2006 to $142.3 million, up from $138.06 million in FY 2005.  National Archives was appropriated $283 million, which included sufficient funds to continue development of the Electronic Records Archives (ERA).

Grassroots Advocacy on Behalf of the NHPRC:  This year’s major achievement in the realm of appropriations was realized only because of the concerted effort by virtually the entire history, archives, and humanities community to secure funding for the National Historical Publication and Records Commission (NHPRC).  The NHPRC had been zeroed out in the president’s budget, but Hill visits made by history coalition organizational  representatives during the National Humanities Alliance “lobby day,” as well as hundreds of communications sent to Congress by state archivists and documentary editors, the submission of several history and archives petitions (including an unprecedented on-line petition drive coordinated by the state archivists) that targeted Congressional committees, resulted in a remarkable grassroots lobbying effort by NHPRC supporters.  Capping off the lobby effort was a final organizational sign-on letter coordinated by the history coalition that was endorsed by nine major member organizations and forwarded to House and Senate conferees.   In the end the commission was appropriated $5.5 million with an additional $2 million to cover administrative and staffing for a total of $7.2 million.  While these numbers fall far short of the $10 million full-funding goal for the NHPRC, nevertheless, this figure is far better than termination of this important program as the White House had recommended.  Special recognition is due the herculean efforts of member organizations, the Association for Documentary Editing, Society of American Archivists, Council of State Archivists, and the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators.

New Funding Stream in Support of “Teaching American History” Initiative:  Thanks to the continued support of Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV), the Department of Education’s “Teaching American History” (TAH) initiative was funded yet again at about $120 million.  In part due to a meeting and follow-up work by history coalition representatives and staff with Senator Byrd’s legislative assistant, a long-term history coalition goal – seeing a portion of the TAH appropriation go to the support of  “national programs” – was realized.  In FY 2006 there is a “3% of appropriated funds” set-aside (approximately $3.6 million) for such programs.  Next year, many history coalition member organizations will be able to potentially benefit from this special set-aside.

IV.  ORGANIZATION BUILDINGMerger Proposal:  This year brought a decision to the proposal to merge the National Coalition for History with the National Humanities Alliance.  After thoughtful consideration by the boards of both organizations it was decided that a formal merger was not in the best interests of either organization at this time.

Strategic Planning:  Following the unsuccessful merger, a strategic planning committee was authorized to begin work on an update to the plan devised in 2001.  A board committee representative of the history coalition’s diverse membership was appointed and charged to report to the board in 2006.  In addition, a special fundraising committee was authorized and met twice; their findings, recommendations and the results of a member survey were turned over to the strategic planning committee for incorporation into the strategic plan.

\Internships: The history coalition’s student intern program continued with the part-time assistance of two student interns – Giny Cheong (George Mason University) and Nathaniel Kulyk (The American University) who assisted the executive director in the totality of the NCH operations.  For a good part of the year the interns prepared the initial drafts of the NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE.

Grant and Other Special Funding:  A grant application submitted last year to NARA for the support of a Stolen Documents Monitoring initiative was approved and the first funding claim against the $20,000 cap made.  Once again the National Coalition for History made application to and was accepted into the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) for 2006.  The coalition will participate in that campaign as a member of the Conservation, Preservation Federation of America (CPCA). During the annual internet solicitation drive the Society for History in the Federal Government sent out a special posting to its members requesting they consider contributing to the NCH through the CFC drive.  Funds from the first campaign will be realized in FY 2006.

Audit:  In the effort to comply with federal regulations requiring an annual audit, a new independent auditor Jeff Secker of  Secker and Associates P.C. was engaged to perform the annual audit.  The cost savings over the previous firm that was engaged to perform the audit was over $5,000. Consistent with the management letter issued by the auditor last year, bonding was secured for the organization’s treasurer, board, and staff.  

Membership Update:  Following last years issuance of invitations to join the history coalition that were sent to over seventy potential institutional supporters and resulted with only modest success, this year targeted recruitment efforts were re-initiated.  As a result, several new members joined the history coalition:  The National Security Archives (Sustaining Supporter level), National Council for History Education (Sustaining Supporter level); and the National Council for the Social Studies (Institutional Supporter level); membership has been pledged from the Association of Centers for the Study of Congress.   Invitations to join the history coalition of which decisions whether to join are still pending include: the Civil War Preservation Trust, Archives of  the Diocese of Las Cruses New Mexico, International Academy for Historical Studies, Florida Council for the Social Studies, and the National History Club.

Several member organizations also raised their contribution levels; they include the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, The History Channel, Southern Historical Association, Association of American University Presses, Mid-Atlantic Archives Conference, Center for History and New Media, H-Net History On-line, and Southern Association for Women Historians.   Several member organizations did not meet donation targets and either reduced their annual contribution or did not contribute at all this year: National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, Council of State Archivists, The Manuscript Society, and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers.