By Page Putnam Miller, Director of the National Coordinating
Committee for the Promotion of History pagem@CapAccess.org
[H-Net subscribers are invited to redistribute this report.]
1. Senate Hearings on NEH
2. Update on Bush Archives case
3. Update on PROFS case
1. Senate Reauthorization Subcommittee Holds Hearing on NEH
On March 2 the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee's
Subcommittee on Education , Arts, and the Humanities held a hearing
to consider the reauthorization of the National Endowment for the
Humanities. The committee hearing, chaired by James Jefford s (R-
VT), consisted of testimony from Sheldon Hackney, the Chair of NEH,
and two panels. Jeffords began by commenting on some of the
commendable programs of the NEH and noting that the committee was
interested in hearing how the NEH currently serves and h ow it may
be improved. Departing from his prepared testimony, Hackney spoke
about the March 1 hearing before Gorton's subcommittee and the
experience of being in the shadow of Jane Alexander, the Chair of
NEA. He also inserted remarks about how grants to Laurel Thatcher
Ulrich, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book, A Midwife's
Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary 1785-1812,
illustrate the variety of the ways the NEH provides support to the
humanities. In 1979 Ulrich received a summer stipend to do
research; it was that summer that she found the diary. In the
early 1980s she received a full year fellowship to research and
write what became the award winning book. Now in the 90s the NEH
was awarded a grant to turn the book into a documentary film. The
ripple effect, Hackney said, of how scholarly research leads to a
book and then to a film reaching a wider audience, is at the heart
of what NEH does. He also provided statistics noting that 11
million attended state NEH programs last year, 30 to 40 million
attended national programs and 244 million saw media programs.
"Americans are thirsty for NEH programs," Hackney asserted and NEH
wants to expand "so more Americans will come into the orbit of the
transforming power of the humanities."
Jeffords thanked Hackney for an eloquent presentation and said he
hoped to make sure NEH could continue. Clearly the program of most
interest to Jeffords is the Vermont state humanities programs that
promote literacy. Senator Claiborne Pell (D-RI) praised the NEH
and then asked specifically about whether the number of
appointments made by the governor to the state councils should be
increased. Senator Dan Coats (D-IN) said that while there were
projects appreciated in his state he heard from his constituents
about highly controversial grants that they felt should not be
funded with tax payers' money. He focused particularly on the
National History Standards. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) praised
the NEH and then asked about whether additional language should be
added to the reauthorization bill about recovering money from an
NEH grant that becomes a commercial successful. Senator John
Ashcroft (R-MO) wondered whether tax credits for contributions to
the endowments may be a means for encouraging fund raising.
The second panel consisted of Victor Swenson, head of the Vermont
State Humanities Council, Dave Berry the Director of the Community
College Humanities Association, and Alberta Arthurs of the
Rockefeller Foundation. Each spoke of the value of NEH programs
with an emphasis on literacy programs, support for communities
colleges, and NEH's ability to support major national collaborative
projects that no single state or institution could support.
The final panel consisted of Walter Burns of the American
Enterprise Institute and a former member of the NEH Council and
Barry Gross of the National Association of Scholars. Both were
highly critical of NEH. However, the major target of their
criticism was higher education in general, current humanities
faculties, law schools that failed to give proper consideration to
the Constitution, political science departments, and the American
Council of Learned Societies. Burns talked about how "dead white
European males" no longer held a key place in college curriculum.
Both decried the way scholarship has been politicized focusing on
the politically correct subjects of class, race and sex and the way
scholarship has become less vigorous and serious.
Deconstructionism and post-modernism also came in for attack.
Gross recommended that the NEH Council have only about six to eight
members and each have a staff person so that grants could receive
more careful reviews. He also recommended that there be fewer
grants and that they be large ones that support such things as the
publications of classics, the expansion of archival holdings, and
the development of catalogs.
Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN) responded with passion to Burns and
Gross' presentations. For the record, he said, that their
presentations were a caricature that bore little resemblance to
reality. What we have heard, Wellstone said, "is disconnected from
reality." He defended higher education. In response to the
comments about lower text scores, he noted there there were other
variables such as poverty that helped to explain today's lower test
scores.
Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS), who chaired the hearing after Jeffords
left, and Bill Frist (R-TN), who chaired it after Kassebaum left,
both indicated some sympathy for Burns and Gross' positions but
also indicated support for many NEH programs. Kassebaum
specifically identified research as one of the most important
activities that NEH should fund.
Members of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee's
Subcommittee on Education, Arts, and the Humanities are:
Chair, James Jeffords (R-VT); Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS); Dan
Coats (R-IN); Judd Gregg (R-NH); Bill Frist (R-TN); Mike
DeWine (R-OH); John As hcroft (R- MO); Slade Gorton (R-WA);
Claiborne Pell (D-RI); Edward Kennedy (D-MA); Christopher
Dodd (D-CT); Tom Harkin (D-IA); Paul Simon (D-IL); Barbara
Mikulski (D-MD); Paul Wellstone (D-MN).
2. Update on AHA v. Peterson and Bush - As reported in the press
(with an editorial in the New York Times on March 1), Judge Charles
R. Richey of the United States District Court for the District of
Columbia ruled on February 27, just five days after hearing the
case, that the Bush-Wilson Agreement violates the Presidential
Records Act. Richey noted particularly that by providing that Bush
shall retain "exclusive legal control of all Presidential
Information on the materials," the agreement ran counter to the law.
Richey stressed that the law requires that the U.S. Archivist and
not the former President assume control of Presidential records. The
agreement is unconstitutional Richey ruled because it purports to
give former President Bush, now a private citizen, authority to
direct the actions of current executive officials.
Although Judge Richey indicated on February 22 during the oral
arguments that he was considering consolidating the AHA v. Peterson
case with the remaining portions of the Armstrong case, that will
not happen since the AHA v. Peterson case is now closed. The
government does have 60 days to decide whether to appeal the
February 27 decision.
3. Update on Armstrong (PROFS) Case - On February 22 the government
filed an appeal of Judge Richey's February 14 ruling that the
National Security Council is an agency and, therefore, NSC records
created and received on the NSC's electronic communications system
must be maintained and preserved in accordance with the Federal
Records Act. On March 1, the Court of Appeals granted the
government motion for a stay of this decision pending appeal. The
government has already indicated that it intends to request an
expedited schedule for this appeal.