On April 9, 2008, the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies held a hearing to consider the fiscal year (FY) 2009 budget for the Smithsonian Institution. The Bush administration’s proposed budget would increase total funding for the Smithsonian by nearly $34 million from the FY ’08 budget to a total of $716.4 million. However, the budget includes an $11 million reduction in funding for public programs, exhibitions and research.

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings recently announced the award of $114.7 million for 121 new grants under the Teaching American History Grants program. The grants are being awarded to school districts in 40 states nationwide. For a list of the grantees, click here.

I have been informed today by National Archives staff that I misconstrued Archivist Weinstein’s response to Chairman Serrano’s question about the status of research hours at NARA that was posed in last week’s House budget hearing. The Archivist said that if the FY ’09 budget as proposed by the Bush administration is adopted that the research hours will NOT be affected or cut. The base budget allows for the hours to remain as they will be when the hours are restored on April 14.

On April 1, 2008, the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government held a hearing to consider the fiscal year (FY) 2009 budget request for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

On March 26, 2008, the National Endowment for the Humanities’ (NEH) newly created Office of Digital Humanities announced the first JISC/NEH Transatlantic Digitization Collaboration Grant award recipients on behalf of the NEH and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). A total of five projects received over $600,000 in funding.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) published a proposed rule in the Federal Register on April 4, 2008, to amend its regulations on public use of the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, for meetings or special events.

On March 26, 2008, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and Footnote.com announced the release of an online interactive photo of the Vietnam War Memorial. In addition, the website enables visitors to search names on the Wall and provides a link to the service records and casualty reports of each person. Footnote.com will be digitizing NARA’s photos from the Vietnam War. The website also allows visitors to create a tribute page dedicated to those who served in Vietnam, who may not be on the Wall.