As previously, this notice is prepared for the preservation community by
Loretta Neumann of CEHP, Inc. for ACRA, the American Cultural Resources
Association, and provided in support of our efforts to retain federal funding
and regulations for the protection of cultural resources in this country.
 For more information on ACRA contact: American Cultural Resources
Association, c/o Tom Wheaton,  New South Associates, Inc., 6150 East Ponce de
Leon Ave., Stone Mountain, Georgia 30083  phone: (404)498-4155.
 
To Friends of Archaeology & Historic Preservation:
 
SUMMARY OF ALERT:
The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (Council) is still in limbo.
 The House Appropriations Committee met today, but adjourned without
completing work on the fiscal 1996 funding bill for the Interior Department &
Related Agencies. They did not consider any of the measures dealing with
historic preservation programs. They will meet again next Tuesday, June 27,
8:30 am. Meanwhile,  your help is urgently needed! Following is background
information followed by suggestions of specific things you can do to be of
help.
 
BACKGROUND:
This will continue our saga of what Congress is trying to do to the Advisory
Council on Historic Preservation.  The House of Representatives'
Appropriations Committee is considering a proposal to eliminate the Council.
The 1996 funding bill,  approved by a subcommittee last week, contains only
enough money  ($1 million out of the President's request for over $3 million)
to "close out" the Council .
 
The full Appropriations Committee met today.  As one source who attended
said: "They made very, very tiny  progress."  They took up only one
 substantive amendment by Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ralph
Regula, relating to the funds for the former National Biological Service.
They didn't finish, but instead took a "recess" until 8:30 a.m., Tuesday,
June 27.
 
Meanwhile, there may be an effort to offer an amendment to restore at least
part of the Council's money and, probably more important, to take out
language that would "eliminate" the Council. The wording of the amendment is
still being worked out, since one of its key components is the source of
funding.
 
HOW TO HELP:
Several national groups are planning to "drop" (hand deliver) letters to the
House of Representatives this Monday, the day before the Appropriations
Committee takes up the bill.
If you want to help this effort (PLEASE DO!), there are two immediate things
you can do:
 
 
(1) CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. Urge him or her to support
retention of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.  If your
Representative is not on the Appropriations Committee, ask him or her to
share your views with a committee member.
      --Point out the importance of the Council as the "glue" that holds the
federal, tribal, state and local program together.
      --The Council helps ensure consistency among the states and agencies.
      --It provides a means for the public, including Native Americans,  to
participate in discussions of preservation issues that affect them.
      --The Council's work is augmented but not replaced by the work of state
historic preservation offices. We need all of these partners to work
together.
 
        (2) COMPOSE YOUR OWN LETTER. Early Monday afternoon, June 26, we will
be
hand delivering to the House letters and statements from a variety of
sources, national and local, in support of retaining the Council.  We urge
you to join this effort. Compose a letter to your Representative address:
U.S. House of Representatives, Washington DC 20515). Use the ideas outlined
above, including local examples and personal comments.  Then e-mail or fax
(or both) your letter to us expressing your support for the Council and your
concerns about what would happen if it closes. If possible, give an example
of an experience you have had in resolving conflicts.  We plan to package
these together with letters from national organizations (ACRA,  Preservation
Action, National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers, etc.)
and have them hand delivered to the congressional offices on Monday.
 
        We need both Democrats and Republicans, of course, but we are
especially
mindful of the need to get some Republicans.  If you are in a Republican
district, we can't stress too much how important it is get some of them.
 Note that these issues have traditionally been bipartisan, and
preservationists are as likely to be Republican as Democrat.  We hope they
will vote on the merits.
 
        You can fax your letters to ACRA, c/o CEHP Incorporated, 202-293-1782
and/or
e-mail them to [log in to unmask]
 
OTHER NEWS:
        We'll keep you posted on what's happening. Indeed, for those who are
tracking the progress of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the only
substantive amendment today was one by Rep. Ralph Regula, chairman of the
Interior Appropriations Subcommittee. His initial amendment would have taken
the $50 million diverted be his subcommittee last week to the NEH from the
former National Biological Service  and give it to PILT (Payments in Lieu of
Taxes, a fund that annually reimburses mostly Western states for the lack of
taxes on federal land holdings in their states). The programs of the former
NBS would have been moved to the US Geological Survey.  Rep. Sidney Yates,
ranking Democrat and former subcommittee chairman, got approval to divide the
amendment to consider the funding issues separate from the organizational
ones. Some of the money would go to PILT; it is not clear whether the rest of
the money would go the biological sciences or to the National Endowment for
the Arts (another Yates amendment).  Also, whether the NBS (or Life Sciences
Bureau, the most recent name) lives on as a separate agency or becomes part
of the USGS remains to be decided.
 
CONCLUSION:
        To conclude. Please make your phone calls.  And please send us a
letter. I
would like to have at least one constituent letter to go with each of the
Representatives on the Appropriations Committee.
 
        Several people have asked how effective our lobbying  this will be,
since we
have no assurance that the Committee will do what we want. My longstanding
motto is-- "You may never know if what you did mattered, but you will always
that what you didn't do didn't."
 
        Following, for those who are first-timers on these networks, is a
list of
the members of the House Committee on Appropriations, Room H-218, Capitol
Building.
 
Majority (Republicans)
 
Livingston, Bob (R-LA) - Chairman
McDade, Joseph M.  (R-PA)
Myers, John T. (R-IN)
Young, C. W. (R-FL)
Regula, Ralph (R-OH)
Lewis, Jerry (R-CA)
Porter, John E. (R-IL)
Rogers, Harold (R-KY)
Skeen, Joseph (R-NM)
Wolf, Frank R. (R-VA)
DeLay, Thomas (R-TX)
Kolbe, James T. (R-AZ)
Vucanovich, Barbara (R-NV)
Lightfoot, James R. (R-IA)
Packard, Ronald (R-CA)
Callahan, Sonny (R-AL)
Walsh, James T. (R-NY)
Taylor, Charles Hart (R-NC)
Hobson, David L. (R-OH)
Istook, Ernest Jim (R-OK)
Bonilla, Henry (R-TX)
Knollenberg, Joe (R-MI)
Miller, Dan (R-FL)
Dickey, Jay (R-AR)
Kingston, Jack (R-GA)
Riggs, Frank (R-CA)
Frelinghuysen, Rodney (R-NJ)
Wicker, Roger (R-MS)
Forbes, Michael (R-NY)
Nethercutt, George (R-WA)
Jim Bunn (R-OR)
Neumann, Mark (R-WI)
 
 
 
Minority (Democrats)
Obey, David R. (D-WI) - Ranking Minority Member
Yates, Sidney R. (D-IL)
Stokes, Louis (D-OH)
Bevill, Thomas (D-AL)
Murtha, John P. (D-PA)
Wilson, Charles (D-TX)
Dicks, Norman D. (D-WA)
Sabo, Martin O.  (D-MN)
Dixon, Julian C. (D-CA)
Fazio, Vic (D-CA)
Hefner, W. G. (D-NC)
Hoyer, Steny H. (D-MD)
Durbin, Richard J. (D-IL)
Coleman, Ronald D. (D-TX)
Mollohan, Alan B. (D-WV)
Chapman, Jim (D-TX)
Kaptur, Marcy (D-OH)
Skaggs, David E. (D-CO)
Pelosi, Nancy (D-CA)
Visclosky, Peter J. (D-IN)
Foglietta, Thomas M. (D-PA)
Torres, Esteban E.  (D-CA)
Lowey, Nita M. (D-NY)
Thornton, Raymond (D-AR)