On November 16, the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress (ACRC) met at the National Archives. The Advisory Committee is comprised of the officials in Congress responsible for its records (Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate) and the Archivist of the United States, who is responsible for the administration of the archived records of Congress.
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has announced it is now accepting applications for its 2010 Summer Programs in the Humanities for Teachers. The application deadline for all four programs is March 2, 2010 (postmark).
On November 18, 2009, Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) became the longest-serving member of Congress, having served in the House of Representatives (1953-1959) and the Senate (1959-present) for a total of 56 years, 10 months, and 16 days. He broke the record previously set by Carl T. Hayden (1912-1969). On June 12, 2006, Senator Byrd became the longest-serving senator in U.S. history.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has announced that it is convening a forensic document examination team to study two pages of the handwritten notes of H. R. Haldeman, a chief of staff to President Richard M. Nixon, 1969-1973. The two pages of notes under investigation were purported to have been created during Mr. Haldeman’s 11:30 A.M. meeting with President Nixon on June 20, 1972, three days after the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters.
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently announced the appointments of Rolena Adorno, the Reuben Post Halleck Professor of Spanish and Chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale University, and Marvin Krislov, the President and a professor of politics at Oberlin College, to the National Council on the Humanities.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) recently issued its 2009 Performance and Accountability Report which covers activities from October 1, 2008, to September 30, 2009. The report measures NARA’s progress in meeting the goals established in its Strategic Plan.
On November 13, David Ferriero, the former Andrew W. Mellon Director of the New York Public Libraries, was sworn in as the tenth Archivist of the United States at a small ceremony at the National Archives at College Park, MD. Mr. Ferriero will move to Washington and assume his duties full-time in the very near future.
On November 5, the Senate passed the fiscal year (FY) 2010 Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations bill (H.R. 2847). By a vote of 36-62, the Senate rejected an amendment by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that would have eliminated funding for the political science program at the National Science Foundation (NSF). The political science program at NSF is budgeted at $9 million.
On November 6, the United States Senate voted unanimously to confirm David Ferriero as the 10th Archivist of the United States. Mr. Ferriero was the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the New York Public Libraries. Mr. Ferriero, who was nominated by President Obama on July 28, 2009, will succeed Professor Allen Weinstein who resigned as Archivist in December 2008 for health reasons.
