The House of Representatives has nearly finished passing FY 20 appropriations bills that reject the president’s budget request across-the-board. The House has passed ten of the twelve FY 20 appropriations bills. As a result we have the final House numbers for all agencies and programs that affect history, archives, humanities and education.
Obviously this is only the first step in a very long convoluted process. To date the Senate Appropriations Committee has not considered a single funding bill. And as we have seen during the Trump presidency, the entire appropriations process can be derailed at the last minute with fights over a border wall, disaster funding or some other perceived presidential priority.
Here are the highlights from the FY 20 House appropriations bills:
- The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) will receive $354.7 million for operating expenses, a reduction of $18.3 million from the $373 million the agency received in FY 19. Of this amount, $4.1 million is provided for implementation of the Civil Rights Cold Case Record Collections Act of 2018. It also includes $22 million for the repair and alteration of Archives II in College Park to expedite digitization of NARA’s existing holdings. NARA IS THE ONLY HISTORY-RELATED AGENCY OR PROGRAM THAT SUSTAINED A CUT FROM FY 19 FUNDING.
- The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) is funded at $7 million, up from $ 6 million in FY 19.
- The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) would receive $167.5 million, $12.5 million above the fiscal year 2019 level of $155 million.
- The K-12 history and civics programs at the Department of Education were level funded at $4.8 million. The Presidential and Congressional Academies for American History and Civics received $1.8 million and the American History and Civics grants program received $3 million.
- The Title VI/Fulbright-Hays International Education programs saw their first significant increases in almost a decade. In total they received a $17.1 million increase up to $89.1 million. Domestic programs would increase by $15.2 million up to $80.4 million and Fulbright-Hays would increase to $8.7 million up from $7 million.
- The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) received a $25 million funding boost up to $267 million. Museum programs would receive an $8 million increase up to $42.7 million.
- The National Park Services’ Historic Preservation Fund will receive $121.6 million this fiscal year, a $19 million increase over FY19. The National Recreation and Preservation Fund would see its budget increase by $9.3 million up to a level of $73.5 million
- The Smithsonian Institution was funded at $1.071 billion, a $27 million increase.
- The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars received $14 million, $2 million more than last year.
- Library of Congress: The only bill that has not been considered on the floor is the Legislative Branch appropriations bill which is being held up by a controversy involving congressional pay raises. The Library received a $24 million increase up to $720 million in the bill passed by the House Appropriations Committee.