1. Appropriations Committee Recesses Without Deciding NEH Budget
2. National Archives and NHPRC Budget Decisions Postponed
3. Archivist Testifies Before Moynihan Commission
4. Gerald George Named Executive Director of NHPRC
5. Update on National Science Foundation
1. Appropriations Committee Recesses Without Deciding NEH Budget -
The House Appropriations Committee met most of June 22,
not recessing until late afternoon; however, they failed to
complete work on the NEH and historic preservation budgets. They
will resume work on June 27 at 8:30 am. Representative David
Obey (D-WI), a member of the Appropriations Committee has
requested that no more faxes be sent to his office.
2. National Archives and NHPRC Budget Decisions Postponed -
The House Treasury Subcommittee has postponed until June
27 the markup of its FY'96 appropriations bill. The markup had
been scheduled for June 22. The House Appropriations Committee
did not finish its work on the Interior bill in the morning of
June 22; and when the full committee remained in session in the
afternoon, the Treasury, Postal Service and General Government
Subcommittee, chaired by Representative Jim Lightfoot (R-IA), had
to postpone its meeting. There is a possibility they may have to
postpone it again.
3. Archivist Testifies Before Moynihan Commission -
On June 20 the Moynihan Commission on Protecting and
Reducing Government Secrecy met and heard testimony from U.S.
Archivist John Carlin and from Harold Relyea, a specialist in
information policy at the Congressional Research Service. Seated
across the table from such prominent commission members who in
addition to Senator Moynihan included John Deutch, Director of
Central Intelligence; Representatives Lee Hamilton and Larry
Combest; Senator Jesse Helms; and journalist Ellen Hume, Carlin
expressed a commitment of the National Archives to improve the
declassification system. He issued a disclaimer at the beginning
of his presentation noting that he had been on the job for only
three weeks and was not an expert on this subject. However, he
had clearly studied the issues and displayed considerable
familiarity with the subject. In most cases, he answered the
questions posed by the commission members and only consulted for
technical information the three National Archives' specialists on
declassification policy whom he brought with him. Carlin
indicated a keen awareness of the costs of the current system and
stated that dealing with the backlog of classified records would
be one of his priorities as U.S. Archivist. In making six
recommendations, he revealed strong concern over the great
expense of page by page review and of the current method of
interagency coordination. He noted that the National Archives
holds 467 million pages of classified information; that 450
million of these are over 25 years old; that in the last decade
the number of classified records in the National Archives have
quadrupled; and that in the last five years only 56 million pages
have been declassified. Deutch raised the issue of how
classified recordings and pictures will be declassified.
Following the presentation of Harold Relyea on the
history of declassification policy, the discussion turned to
Clinton's new executive order on declassification, to whether the
exemptions from declassification are too loose, and to the
absence of a provision for judicial review. At the next meeting
the commission plans to address the tasks and goals they hope to
accomplish in the next two years.
4. Gerald George Named Executive Director of NHPRC.
At a meeting on June 22 the National Historical
Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) appointed Gerald
George to serve as its Executive Director. George had served as
Executive Director of NHPRC for four years prior to his
resignation in October 1994. The Commission voted to reappoint
"its immediate past Executive Director to this position and asks
that he resume his duties at the earliest possible date."
5. Update on National Science Foundation -
On June 22 the House Science Committee met but recessed
prior to considering the NSF reauthorization legislation. There
has been speculation that Representative Robert Walker (R-PA),
chair of the committee, would introduce an amendment to
eliminate the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic
Sciences. There are indications that Walker's proposed amendment
will state that there should be "no more than six assistant
directors." Since there are currently seven directorates, this
would mean the elimination of one. It seems that the Walker
amendment intends for the agency to work out the details for the
restructuring. There does appear to be strong support within NSF
for the Science, Technology, and Society program which funds most
of the history studies and which was formerly called the History
and Philosophy of Science program.
(correction -- in Vol. 1, #33, June 21, 1995 the
date of the Interior Subcommittee markup was June
20 and not June 22)
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