NCC Washington Update, Vol.1, #12
March 4, 1995
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. National Archives $
1. House Hearing on FY'96 Budget for the National Archives.
On March 3 the House Appropriations Subcommittee on
Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government, chaired by
Representative Jim Lightfoot (R-IA), heard testimony from Dr.
Trudy Huskamp Peterson, the Acting Archivist of the United
States, concerning the FY'96 budget request for the National
Archives. Five of the eight members of the subcommittee attended
the hearing. In addition to Lightfoot, Representatives Frank Wolf
(R-VA); Jack Kingston (R-GA), Steny Hoyer (D-MD), and Ronald
Coleman (D-TX) were present. The committee expressed interest in
many aspects of the National Archives' work and with the
exception of Representative Frank Wolf's (R-VA) questions about
personnel policies, it was a very cordial hearing. Lightfoot
welcomed Peterson as one who is providing the highest caliber of
service and an Iowa product, who is doing a great job. Peterson,
is from Iowa and both her undergraduate and graduate degrees are
from Iowa universities. He then submitted for the record a
letter from a researcher that appeared in the March 2 Washington
Times that commended the National Archives for its supurb
service.
In her presentation, Peterson described the National
Archives as the heart of the federal governments' information
system. She discussed briefly each of the three major goals of
the National Archives' strategic plan -- enhancing access,
servicing customers efficiently, and reducing costs. The National
Archives, which has had a gopher on Internet since May, is
constantly adding new National Archives' material and more
finding aids to this on line service, which receives over 200
inquires an hour. Peterson noted that with the downsizing of
government many agencies will be sending a greater amount of
records to the National Archives. They are working to be
prepared to accession these records. On improving the turn
around time for requests for duplication of photos and maps,
Peterson said they are privatizing this service and that nine
firms will be able to reduce the time of delivery of requests
from 8 weeks to 2 weeks.
The National Archives' budget request for FY'96 is $195.291
million, approximately the same amount as this year. In
visualizing the budget as a pie, Peterson explained that about
50% goes for facilities, 40% for personnel, and 10% for
everything else from postage to computers. The amount earmarked
in the Fy'96 budget for the National Historical Publications and
Records Commission (NHPRC) grants is $4 million. This is
$750,000 less than is currently available for competitive NHPRC
grants.
In the question and answer period there were questions
regarding: the recent court decision in the American Historical
Association v Peterson case; the preservation of the Constitution
and Declaration of Independence; the personnel levels (the
National Archives is currently at 8% below their FY'94 level of
full time employees); the impact of the buyouts of employees
taking early retirement; the Inspector General's recommendations
for interim performance ratings of Senior Executive Service
employees; possible overlap in the work of the National Archives
and the Library of Congress; and the problems of being locked
into high, fixed building costs.
Several members also asked questions about electronic
access. Peterson explained that the National Archives in now
undertaking a pilot telecommunications project in Nebraska and
will be evaluating what citizens would like most to have
available on the Internet. "The nation-wide net," Peterson said,
"is our future." She explained that it will save money in the
long run because staff will not have to answer letters and print
and distribute material. People can find information for
themselves at a time that is convenient for them. Lightfoot
responded by noting that this is an exciting development,
particularly because it will give access to smaller libraries.
The Internet address for the National Archives is
gopher.nara.gov or http://www.nara.gov/
Members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on
Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government: Jim
Lightfoot (R-IA) - Chair, Frank Wolf (R-VA); Ernest
Istook (D-IN); Jack Kingston (R-GA); Mike Forbes
(R-NY); Steny Hoyer (D-MD); Peter Visclosky (D-IN);
Ronald Coleman (D-TX)
Correction to Vol.1, #11 - Senator Spencer Abraham (R-MI),
and not Senator John Ashcroft (R-MO), made observations
during the March 2 NEH hearing about using tax credits as
incentives to raise money for NEH.