Senate Panel Provides $314M for National Archives in FY ’08

On July 12, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its fiscal year 2008 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill. The bill includes $313.9 million for operating expenses of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). This funding level is $1.1 million above the President’s request, $1.1 million less than the House recently approved in its bill (H.R. 2829) (S. Rept. 110-129), and $34.6 million above fiscal year 2007 budget.

The Electronic Records Archive program will receive $58 million, the same as the amount provided in the House bill and the President’s request. This is an increase of $12 million over FY ’07.

The Senate bill provides $25.1 million for the Archives’ repair and restoration account, which is $9 million more than the House-passed bill. The Senate’s allocation is $16 million more than provided in FY’ 07 and $16.5 million above the President’s FY ’08 request for this account. $13.5 million of the increase would be earmarked for construction projects at the Johnson, Kennedy, Nixon and Franklin Roosevelt presidential libraries. $9.6 million would go to ongoing repairs and restoration, and $2 million would be allocated to the Anchorage, Alaska Regional Archives and Records Center.

Although they are not part of the federal presidential library system, the Committee also encouraged the Archives to work with the Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson Presidential Libraries on proects of mutual interest.

It is unlikely that the Senate will consider the bill before it leaves for its annual August recess at the end of the month.