Lawmakers Pass CR, Buy More Time to Negotiate Appropriations
This week, the House and Senate passed and the President signed a Continuing Resolution (CR) averting a government shutdown and funding the government through December 20th. The CR gives lawmakers more time to resolve the differences between their respective appropriations bills and work on a potential year-end omnibus spending bill. This would include the FY20 Interior Appropriations bill, which funds several historic preservation priorities.
Last month the Senate passed their FY20 Interior and Environment Appropriations Bill, which included $113.6 million for the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) an increase of $10.5 million over FY19 enacted levels. This includes important increases for the State and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices, the Save America's Treasures program, and the Historic Revitalization grant program. The House bill, passed in July, included $121.66 million for the HPF. Both bills represent a significant increase for the HPF. Additionally, both bills included strong report language objecting to the proposed rule changes to the National Register of Historic Places.
Preservation Action continues to monitor the appropriations process and advocate for these critical increases to the Historic Preservation Fund.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Advances Restore Our Parks Act and LWCF Permanent Funding Act
This week the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing to consider several important bills. The committee voted to advance the Restore Our Parks Act (S. 500) by a vote of 15-5 and the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) Permanent Funding Act (S. 1081) by a vote of 13-7. Both bills were passed out of committee with strong bipartisan support and now move to be considered on the Senate floor. The Restore Our Parks Act would establish a dedicated fund to address the deferred maintenance backlog at the National Park Service, which is nearly $12 billion, 47% of which is attributed to historic resources. The LWCF Permanent Funding Act would fully fund the LWCF at $900 million annually. The LWCF was permanently authorized at the beginning of the year and has helped to preserve numerous iconic historic sites across the country.
In the House, the Restore Our Parks and Publlic Lands Act (
H.R 1225) and the LWCF Permanent Funding Act (
H.R 3195) passed the House Natural Resources Committee in June and was recently filed with the House clerk, setting it up to be considered on the House floor.
The Restore Our Parks Act is up to 329 cosponsors in the House and 45 cosponsors in the Senate. The LWCF Permanent Funding Act is up to 232 cosponsors in the House and 49 cosponsors in the Senate. Take action. Urge your members of Congress to cosponsor these important bills today!
The National Park Service will host webinars on the new guidelines on January 9th from 1030am - 1130am ET and on January 22 from 330pm - 430pm ET. The webinar invites participates to learn more about how the new guidelines were created and discuss the challenges of adapting historic buildings to reduce flood risk.
Save the Date: National Historic Preservation Advocacy Week Returns March 10-12!
Start making your plans to attend National Historic Preservation Advocacy Week 2020. Advocacy Week returns March 10-12 at the Kimpton Hotel Palomar in Washington, DC. This is our annual opportunity to have a mass impact on policy makers in Washington in support of critically important historic preservation programs and sound preservation policy.
Preservation Action and the National Conference State Historic Preservation Officers organize our industry's Advocacy Week each year, bringing over 250 preservationists to Washington, DC to promote sound federal preservation policy and programs. Together with a cohesive message in support of preservation-positive legislation we can ensure a strong future for the federal historic preservation program.
Make Your Hotel Reservations Today
Take advantage of the special $274/night rate at the
Kimpton Hotel Palomar. Make your reservations by calling 1-877-866-3070 and refer to room block "NCSHPO March 2020" or
visit the online portal. Th
e cut-off date for this rate is February 08, 2020.
Preservation Action is the only national
non-profit dedicated exclusively to lobbying for the best preservation policies at the federal level. We seek to make historic preservation a national priority by advocating to all branches of government through a grassroots constituency empowered with information and training.
This week, the House and Senate passed and the President signed a Continuing Resolution (CR) averting a government shutdown and funding the government through December 20th. The CR gives lawmakers more time to resolve the differences between their respective appropriations bills and work on a potential year-end omnibus spending bill. This would include the FY20 Interior Appropriations bill, which funds several historic preservation priorities.
This week the 
