National Coalition for History

The House and Senate are moving towards year-end negotiations over Fiscal Year 2012 spending levels. It is important if you care about funding for agencies such as the National Endowment for the Humanities and National Historical Publications & Records Commission, and Department of Education programs such as Teaching American History grants and Title VI/Fulbright-Hays International Education, that you contact your Members of Congress as soon as possible. Read the full article »

In October, the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, Oral History Association and Society of American Archivists submitted comments on proposed changes to federal rules regulating research on human subjects. All four groups advised the federal government that historians, especially oral historians, should be granted full exclusion from oversight by institutional review boards (IRBs). Read the full article »

According to a recent article in History News Network, Timothy Naftali, the director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, is stepping down on November 19 after over four years at the helm. Read the full article »

The National History Teacher of the Year Award, a $10,000 annual prize, recognizes outstanding American history teachers from elementary school through high school. Nominations for the 2012 award are now open and being accepted until the deadline of February 1, 2012. Read the full article »

Take a Veteran to School Day is a national program developed by HISTORY to link veterans with students. This popular program encourages schools to connect veterans with young people in our schools and communities to hear their stories of service and learn more about Veterans Day. Read the full article »

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee this week announced it would markup a bill reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) on October 18. Sen. Tom Harkin, (D-IA), the committee chairman, and Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY) the ranking Republican have been engaged in negotiations since early this year in crafting the bill. Read the full article »

On Sept. 21, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a Fiscal Year 2012 funding bill (S. 1599) that includes $46 million for the Teaching American History (TAH) grants program at the Department of Education. However a draft House Appropriations Committee version of the bill released on Sept. 29 would eliminate funding for TAH. Read the full article »

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) has signed a cooperative agreement with the University of Virginia and its Virginia Foundation for the Humanities to provide pre-publication access to 68,000 historical papers of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington that have not yet been published in authoritative documentary editions. Read the full article »

On September 29, the National Archives and Records Administration announced that it has selected IBM to provide operations and maintenance of the Electronic Records Archives system (ERA). Read the full article »

The National Park Service (NPS) has announced that former director Roger G. Kennedy passed away on September 30, 2011 at the age of 85. Read the full article »