As we celebrate National Historic Preservation Month throughout May, Preservation Action, in partnership with the Historic Preservation Congressional Caucus, is planning our Preservation Month Congressional Briefing on May 9th at 12pm. Preservation Action hosts this briefing every year to educate congressional staff on federal preservation programs and policies and key legislative issues impacting historic preservation. This will be our first in-person congressional briefing since 2019.

This year we are excited to be joined by the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers, National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers; National Trust for Historic Preservation, Historic Tax Credit Coalition, and PlaceEconomics.

Help us spread the word!

If you have a personal contact in your Representative or Senators’ office, contact that person directly, share our briefing flyer, and ask them to attend the Preservation Month Congressional Briefing on May 9th. You can also use our easy to use tool to invite staff contacts in your Representative or Senators’ office and urge them to attend!

A very special thank you to our event sponsor, Nixon Peabody, and all of our annual sponsors for helping to make this important event possible.

With the announcement earlier this week that the United States could reach it's borrowing authority as soon as June 1st, negotiations over the debt ceiling are ramping up. House Republicans passed a bill that would raise the debt ceiling through March of 2024, but pairs the debt ceiling increase with trillions in spending cuts. Democrats have called for a clean debt ceiling increase. President Biden is set to meet with congressional leaders on Tuesday of next week. The larger debt ceiling debate has loomed over the FY24 appropriations process, as lawmakers are still waiting on top line budget numbers to fund the federal government, including preservation priorities.

As negotiations over the debt ceiling are ongoing, Senate and House Committees continue to hold hearings on the Biden Administration's budget request. This week, Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.  In Secretary Haaland's written testimony she highlighted the inclusion of $2.5 million in Tribal Heritage Grants through the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF). The testimony also highlighted $10 million for increasing representation on public lands, including helping to preserve places that tell the stories of historically underrepresented communities.

During the hearing, committee members from both sides of the aisle also spent a considerable amount of time asking questions surrounding permitting reform. The Chairman of the committee, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), included the hearing as part of series of hearings that will focus on finding a path forward on permitting reform. The Director of the National Park Service, Chuck Sams, is scheduled to testify before the committee on the Biden Administration's budget request next week.

Addressing permitting reform continues to be a key focus of the current Congress. This week Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) introduced the Building American Energy Security Act of 2023. The bill includes a number of the same provisions Sen. Manchin proposed at the end of last year to address permitting reform. While the bill does not specifically mention the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) or Section 106, the bill does include provisions that would set timelines for environmental reviews and limit judicial review. Sen. Manchin sees the bill as a starting point in the larger permitting reform discussions. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Environment and Public Works Committee are expected to hold additional hearings related to permitting reform in the coming weeks as lawmakers work to craft compromise legislation.

The efforts in the Senate to address permitting reform, follows the passage of H.R. 1 by the House in late March, along a mostly party line vote. Preservation Action joined the National Trust for Historic Preservation and others in a coalition letter objecting to provisions in H.R. 1 that undermine the core principles of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and NHPA and would eliminate vital protections for historic and cultural resources if the proposed changes were enacted. 

With the timetable for debt ceiling negotiations moving up far sooner than expected, lawmakers could try to attach a potential agreement on permitting reform to a deal to raise the debt ceiling. Preservation Action will monitor these efforts in the weeks ahead and continue to urge Congress to avoid changes that undercut critical historic preservation protections.

National Park Service: "National Park Service Adds New Listings to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom"

Planetizen: "Restoring the Vacant Middle: Creating Middle Housing Through Historic Preservation"

Florida: "Florida Trust for Historic Preservation: Florida's 2023 Legislative Session Has Officially Comes to a Close"

Minnesota: "Our View: Bring Back the State Historic Tax Credit Program"

Maine: "Maine Bill Would Increase HTC Percentage for Affordable Housing, Properties not Using Federal HTC"

Washington: "A Seattle Preservationist Revisits Wins and Losses — and Why They Matter"