15 SEPTEMBER 2003
From: John Hammer <jhammer@cni.org>
Date: Mon Sep 29, 2003 4:39:35 PM US/Eastern
Subject: [NHA-ANNOUNCE] Correction on today's NHA Announce
<?fontfamily?> <?param Times?> <?param 0000,0000,0000?> With apologies to Senator Dorgan, I am sending a revised update on my part, there is an error in the NHA Announce entitled "NEH FY-04 moves to Conference" Specifically, Sentor Byron Dorgan (D-ND) is the ranking minority member (RMM) on the Senate Interior Appropriations Committee. Earlier this year, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) gave up the RMM position on interior in order to assume that role on the new Homeland Security Subcommittee of appropriations.. Senator Byrd continues in his role as RMM of the overall Appropriations Committee. (Please delete the earlier version of this report.)
<?fontfamily?> <?param Times?> <?param 0000,0000,0000?> Here is the revised text:
<?fontfamily?> <?param Times?> <?param 0000,0000,0000?> FY-2004 Appropriation for NEH Passes Senate and Moves Toward Conference
by John Hammer and Jessica Jones
Last Wednesday, the Senate passed the FY-2004 appropriations bill for Interior and Related Agencies. NEH was included unchanged from the $142 million recommended by the Appropriations Committee. The arts endowment was also left unchanged at $117.5 million. The manager's amendment into which Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT) was thought to have proposed $10 million each increases for NEH and NEA did not materialize, in fact interior subcommittee chair Conrad Burns [R-MT] offered no manager's amendment at all.
Conference has not been scheduled but preliminaries are already underway. Since NEH is at $142 million in both House and Senate-passed bills, the negotiation will resolve around distribution of funds for We the People -- The House begins with all $15 million for the initiative as proposed in the President's budget (i.e., Bruce Cole's We the People) whereas the Senate version is more expansive and at the same time ambiguous. The Senate report reads as follows: "...$15,000,000 is provided for grants and administration of an American history and civics initiative. While the administration has included a request for funds to implement its $25,000,000 'We the People' American history initiative, Congress is currently considering similar legislation that would complement the administration's proposal. The Committee has attempted to fund the administration's request to the best of its ability given current budget constraints, but expects that design of the final program would incorporate Congressional priorities, should such legislation be enacted into law."
The rewrite of the original Senate-passed Alexander bill continuing forward under Wicker [H.R. 1078] has not passed the House but may be brought up any day. Although a formal appointment of the interior conferees has not been made, the negotiations surrounding the NEH appropriation are essentially political and therefore likely to be resolved later in the process and by a group of four (i.e., House: Charles Taylor [R-NC] chair, and Norm Dicks [D-WA] ranking minority member; and Senate: Conrad Burns chair, and Byron Dorgan [D-ND] ranking.) The chairs and ranking members of the full committees (Ted Stevens [R-AK] and Robert Byrd (D-WV} in the Senate and Charles Young [R-FL] and David Obey [D-WI]) are also likely to play key roles in the outcome for NEH. Given other recent history, it is quite possible that much of the negotiations on the issue will be resolved by Taylor and Burns alone.
Whatever happens, the whole initiative will be housed at NEH and called We the People -- And the NEH will have received an increase just short of $17 million, one of the largest increases in its history. The Alexander/Wicker rewrite, which must pass the House and then, voted upon again by the Senate since it is extensively revised, to incorporates the administration's We the People and somewhat revises the Alexander/Wicker to include Teacher academies, student academies, and a clearinghouse for information on teaching American history and civics. The area of activity in the Alexander/Wicker that is closest to NEH-planned activities for improving the teaching of American history and civics is the teacher academies, which resemble the seminars and institutes NEH has been conducting for years and which are among the activities called for in NEH's initiative.
<?fontfamily?> <?param Times?> <?param 0000,0000,0000?> Although NHA recently encountered key staffers who believe that the White House will go to the mat for a full $25 million as proposed for the initiative by President Bush, most here now believe that the final number for 2004 will be $15 million. Because the Senate is recessing from October 3-14, it is unlikely that the final interior bill will be completed much before the end of October. This means, among other things, that NEH will be included in at least the early Continuing Resolutions (CRs) that Congress passes each year to keep the parts of the government operating that are without completed appropriations for the new fiscal year that begins on October 1. Under a CR, agencies usually spend at the rates permitted in the previous fiscal year.
Note: The National Endowment for the Arts has $10 million more in the House-passed bill than in the Senate. Unlike the NEH situation, the conferencing will be about money rather than programs. It is difficult to predict how much if any of the House increase will make the final conference report. Not only are there conferees from both house who are committed to rebuilding the NEA budget, there are also friends of both endowments who would like to see parity or close to it in the budgets for the two agencies.