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Ben
Chandler (D-KY), upped his subcommittee's recommendation
for State Historic Preservation Office to $45 million.
On
May 23, the House of Representatives Appropriations
Committee’s Interior and Related Agencies Subcommittee
met to mark up (that is, make formal recommendations
for) their FY2008 spending bill and agreed to a
significant increase for State Historic Preservation
Offices and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices and
echoed the President's recommended $10 million for the
Preserve America program.
The subcommittee’s initial proposal included $40
million for State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs)
(up from a plateau of around $35.7 million for several
years), $6.5 million for Tribal Historic Preservation
Offices (THPOs) (up from $3.9 million in the President's
budget and over the last several years), $20 million for
Save America’s Treasures (down from a high of $30
million but up $10 million from the President's FY2008
recommendation) and $10 million for the Preserve America
program as recommended by the President.
Representative Ben
Chandler (D-KY) presented an amendment to
increase SHPO funding an additional $5 million, given
that “SHPOs are the backbone of the (federal)
preservation program and the face of (federal) historic
preservation in the states.” The amendment was
approved, which brought the subcommittee's
recommendation up to $45 million for FY2008.
Representative
Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) Ranking Member of the
subcommittee expressed support for Preserve America and
the subcommittee’s $10 million recommendation for that
program.
The
subcommittee recommended no funding for the historic
resources inventory project proposed for $5 million in
the President’s FY2008 budget.
National
Heritage Areas (NHAs) were recommended for $20 million;
up from $14 million in last year's budget. Interior
subcommittee staff noted that there will be a new way of
deciding how much each heritage area will receive,
"but there should be plenty to go around even with
the 10 new areas."
The
subcommittee meeting lasted less an hour; the room was
packed with representatives from environmental and
cultural groups which, along with historic preservation
interests, have been lobbying for increased spending
since the President released his FY2008 budget in
February. Representative
Norm Dicks (D-WA) presided over the meeting
that took into account 38 separate hearings involving
public officials, tribal leaders, public leaders and
nonprofit groups conducted over the past few months.
Dicks
noted that from 2001 to 2007, funding for the Department
of Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency fell
16% and 29% respectively. The subcommittee’s spending
proposal sought to replenish programs like national
wildlife refuges that had lost 600 FTEs nationwide over
the past few years. The subcommittee also proposed
substantial increases for the National Endowment for the
Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, both
of which were recommended for $160 million.
House
Appropriations Committee Chair David Obey (D-WI)
expressed concern for the state of arts and humanities
education in this country. He noted “we will pay a big
price” for not better integrating the arts and
humanities into our educational system. He said that if
the United States continues to devalue the arts and
humanities, the nation will lose its competitive edge
with other countries, like China, that have encouraged
creativity and critical thinking through arts education.
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