NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 12, #22; 11 May 2006)
2. PUBLIC INTEREST DECLASSIFICATION BOARD CONDUCTS ITS FIRST PUBLIC MEETING
3. TOM WOLFE DELIVERS JEFFERSON LECTURE
4. BITS AND BYTES: Bush Library P-2/P-5 Release; Wilson Fellowship
Competition Announced; Seminar for Historical Administration
5. ARTICLES OF INTEREST:"The Case of Roberts's Missing Papers" (Washington Post)
1. HOUSE COMMITTEE ANNOUNCES FY 2007 BUDGET RECOMMENDATIONS FOR INTERIOR AND RELATED AGENCIES On 4 May 2006, the House Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee announced its recommendations for the Department of the Interior as well as the related agencies under its jurisdiction, including the Smithsonian Institution, the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities, and the Woodrow Wilson Center International Center for Scholars. On 10 May the full Appropriations Committee endorsed most of the subcommittee recommendations. Given this year's austere budget environment, history faired about as well as most Hill watchers expected.
The National Endowment for the Humanities received "level funding" from the subcommittee and full committee -- $141 million, though there are some Hill rumors that an amendment may be offered to raise the NEH by $5 million when the bill reaches the House floor. The Wilson Center for Scholars also received what was recommended in the president's budget -- $9.438 million.
For the National Park Service, the subcommittee tagged the bureau's budget at $2.2 billion -- some $19 million over the president's request but a whopping $100 million under the FY 2006 enacted level. This translates into a massive reduction to the stateside component of the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) which traditionally has provided assistance to the states for operations and park and recreational land acquisition. In its press release, the committee noted that the reductions, "will have no direct impact on the [national] parks" either in terms of construction or land acquisition and that in fact, the committee is allotting an additional
$41 million for park operations.
In light of the recent controversy over the semi-exclusive "Showtime"
contract, both the subcommittee as well as members of the full committee clearly registered their dissatisfaction with the Smithsonian Institution. Several members, including Subcommittee Chair Representative Charles Taylor (R-NC ) and the full committee's powerful Ranking Minority member, Representative David Obey (D-WI) took SI Secretary Lawrence Small
to task for the decision to enter into the Showtime deal. "This exclusive
language is inconsistent with a public institution that is largely financed by the American taxpayer, and it was done without any consultation with this committee" stated Taylor.
Noting the recent press reports of the high salaries being paid Small ($813,000 a year) and some of his key lieutenants, the full committee ripped into the pay rates of SI officials, especially for Secretary Small. Obey stated, "I found him through the years to be as crassly commercial as anybody in town. No matter what Mr. Small is paid, and he is paid an exorbitant rate for somebody running a public institution, he does not have the right to virtually sell the Smithsonian collections." Obey indicated in the subcommittee that he was considering an amendment that would cap salaries at the SI to below that paid to the President of the United States.
In full committee the SI's budget was cut not just by the subcommittee's recommendation of $5 million but by an additional $10 million -- a total reduction of $15 million less than what SI officials had hoped for from the House. In essence, the House Appropriations Committee amended bill gives the SI a budget essentially equal only to the current year's appropriation of $524 million. Holding to Obey's word, language was also added to the bill capping the salaries of key SI officials to no higher than $400,000
-- the salary of the President of the United States.
Finally, under intense pressure from some of his Republican colleagues and the House leadership, subcommittee Chair Taylor abandoned his two-year effort to block federal funds for a memorial to the passengers and crew of United Air Lines Flight 93, which went down in Pennsylvania during the 9-11 tragedy. Taylor maintained the planned memorial was overly grandiose and that private funds should be raised to fund the monument. His position grew increasingly difficult to stand by in light of the release of a Universal Pictures movie titled "United 93" that portrays the passengers of that doomed flight heroically. For the memorial Taylor the committee approved $25.9 million in federal funds for the project.
2. PUBLIC INTEREST DECLASSIFICATION BOARD CONDUCTS ITS FIRST PUBLIC MEETING Having already conducted two organizational meetings earlier in the year, on 9 May 2006, the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB) conducted its first public meeting at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) building in Washington D.C. In spite of being two members short of its full complement, the board took up a range of topics, including the recently released audit report of the controversial agency reclassification program. They also discussed the declassification initiative being undertaken by NARA and the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO). The board concluded its first meeting only after providing an opportunity for public comment on the board's work.
The PIDB was authorized back in 2000 (P.L.106-567) and charged to advise the president and other executive branch officials on classification and declassification policy. It is composed of nine members, five appointed by the president, one each by the Speaker and Minority Leader of the House, as well as one each by the Majority and Minority Leader of the Senate. At this point, all but the appointments by the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader of the Senate have been made. Members of the board are to be preeminent in the fields of history, national security, foreign policy, intelligence policy, social science, law, or archives. The members are: L.
Britt Snider (Chair), Martin Faga, Steven Garfinkel, Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, Richard Norton Smith, David Skaggs, and Joan Vail Grimson. The director of the ISOO, William Leonard, serves as Executive Secretary to the board.
Chair Britt Snider called the meeting to order and made some brief opening comments. He emphasized that the board had agreed to some operating rules and pledged to conduct its meetings in a public forum as much as possible. He stated that the board's recommendations were advisory in nature, that the PIDB did not represent federal agencies but rather the members were charged to represent the public's interests. Before turning to the board's Executive Secretary William Leonard, for his report, Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein also made a few welcoming comments.
Leonard reported in detail about the recently released audit report of the multi-agency reclassification effort that captured considerable public attention in recent weeks and months (for details on the audit report findings, see "NARA Issues Reclassification Audit Report" in NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol 12, #20; 28 April 2006). Leonard stated that the audit demonstrated the need to hold people accountable for inappropriate classification as much as to hold people accountable for inappropriate release of documents. Jay Bosanko, the individual detailed for 60 days by Archivist Weinstein to coordinate the Declassification Initiative, then made his report.
Bosanko explained that the pilot National Declassification Initiative seeks to more effectively address the enormous document backlog (over 450 million pages, including some 80 million pages that current law and agency practice requires be referred to other agencies prior to declassification). The initiative also seeks to better integrate the work that agencies currently undertake in declassification. Bosanko hopes to explore what can be done to improve the policies, procedures, structure, and resources in order to create a more viable and reliable executive-branch wide declassification program. Based on the discussion that followed, it appeared to several PIDB board members and organizational representatives in the audience that the initiative may result in some recommendations requiring legislation in order to create a more viable, cost-effective declassification system.
The discussion that ensued revealed that the PIDB members were well versed in the issues being discussed; they posed relevant and thoughtful and at times challenging questions, and were not shy about voicing their opinions and making recommendations to staff.
Following the discussion of the declassification initiative, the board heard from representatives of three organizations who spoke on a variety of issues, including the declassification effort. In addition to addressing the recent NARA reclassification program, Tom Blanton of the National Security Archive spoke eloquently of the hope of virtually everybody present in the audience that someday the PIDB will receive the legislative charge to declassify documents independently of agencies. Adina Rosenbaum of Public Citizen Litigation Group also addressed the reclassification
effort. Bruce Craig of the National Coalition for History not only made
some suggestions regarding administrative procedures that the PIDB may want to consider in order to insure the greatest public transparency to its operations, and also made recommendations regarding several specific issues and concerns that the PIDB may want to consider addressing in the future.
The spirited discussion and exchange between the board and the public witnesses that followed gave evidence that the PIDB is up and running and off to a good start.
3. TOM WOLFE DELIVERS JEFFERSON LECTURE On 10 May 2006, clad in his signature white suit, Tom Wolfe, the celebrated novelist and chronicler of American society, delivered the 35th annual Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities before a packed audience. Established in 1972, the Jefferson Lecture, which carries a $10,000 honorarium, is the highest honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual and public achievement in the humanities. Wolfe, who is best known for "The Right Stuff," and "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" and has written many other books, novels, and magazine essays delivered a lecture titled "The Human Beast," -- a title taken from a 1888 novel by Emile Zola who Wolfe described as one of his "idols."
The evening began as every Jefferson Lecture has in recent years, with a selection of patriotic tunes played by a brass band that graced the stage of the opulent Warner Theater. Ten minutes after the hour, more pomp when the United States Joint Armed Forces Color Guard escorted the American and other flags representing the various military departments to the stage; the audience was asked to stand for the national anthem. Shortly thereafter, a superb short film produced by The History Channel commemorating the 40th anniversary of the NEH was screened. NEH Chairman Bruce Cole ascended to the podium and made some brief welcoming remarks. He recognized the presence of the Vice-President's wife and former Chair of the NEH, Lynne Cheney in the audience, and then introduced the keynote speaker.
Wolfe dedicated his talk to fellow Jefferson Lecturer Robert Nesbit whose
1988 Jefferson Lecture focused on the idea of a national community. Nesbit called his talk "The Present Age" -- a title that just as well would have fit Wolfe's presentation. Wolfe deviated only slightly from his prepared lecture that ran twelve single-spaced pages and took an hour and a half to deliver. In his opening remarks, Wolfe pledged that in his talk he hoped to tell "everything you will ever need to know about the human beast" and true to his words, indeed he did just that.
Wolfe's lecture was occasionally punctuated with asides and bits of humor but it largely focused on two key notions: first, on the evolutionary importance on speech, which he asserted gave humans the power of reason and complex memory; and second, on Wolfe's fairly unorthodox if not condescending views of "status" (pronounced consistently throughout the talk in his Yaleian accent as "state-us") groups that populate the American nation.
In his effort to demonstrate something new in the worn opinion that there is "no such thing as a human nature independent of culture," Wolfe described varieties of human beasts that populate various American subcultures (from military officers, academics, and astronauts to frat boys, cheerleaders, and rappers) and reflected on how each group establishes its own internal status hierarchy. He claimed that all such groups are motivated by two things: the desire for status and the fear of humiliation.
Wolfe stated that "The human beast's belief in his own fiction-absolute accounts for one of the most puzzling and in many cases irrational
phenomena of our time." To highlight this assertion, Wolfe explained why
he believed the gun-toting NASCAR-attending Scots-Irish population was responsible for the election of George Bush. He said that while Democrats represent the views of those who live in the "parenthesis states of New York and California" they failed to "read the sentence in between" -- middle America -- that voted solidly for Bush. "And the reason" he stated is "that great swath of territory was largely inhabited by the Scot's Irish."
While some questioned the validity of such dubious assertions and Wolfe's other rambling and wandering arguments on everything from Darwinian evolution to gun control, and while still others wrapped their fingers impatiently on the arm rests, a generally appreciative audience clapped politely at the conclusion of the lecture. The effort by a stalwart handful to give Wolfe a standing ovation fell short by hundreds. Nevertheless, by the scores attendees flocked out the side doors to attend the reception in Wolfe's honor that followed at the historic Willard hotel.
Wolfe's lecture is available on-line at http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/wolfe/index.html .
4. BITS AND BYTES
Item # 1 -- Bush Library P-2/P-5 Release: The George Bush Presidential
Library has issued its sixth release of documents previously withheld under
the P-2 (appointment to federal office) and P-5 (confidential advice
between the President and his advisors or between advisors) restrictions of
the Presidential Records Act. This release is of some 11,203 pages (some
2,860 documents) and they are now available for immediate inspection. The
collection includes materials from a number of White House offices
including the president's Chief of Staff, Counsel to the President, the
First Lady's Press Office, as well as various White House agencies
including the Council of Economic Advisors, National Security Council and
the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. To date some 43,000 pages (14,000
documents) have been released; some 26,500 pages are still under review. A
library spokespersons states that hopefully by the end of summer the entire
collection will be processed in accordance with the PRA guidelines. A
detailed index of this and other releases can be found at
http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/releaseddocuments.html Please see"Release #6 - April 24, 2006."
Item # 2 -- Wilson Fellowship Competition Announced: The Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars has announced the opening of its
2007-2008 fellowship competition. The Center awards approximately 20-25
academic year residential fellowships to individuals from any country with
outstanding project proposals on national and/or international issues.
Topics and scholarship should relate to key public policy challenges or
provide the historical and/or cultural framework to illuminate policy
issues of contemporary importance. Applicants must hold a doctorate or have
equivalent professional experience. Fellows are provided stipends (which
include round trip travel), private offices, access to the Library of
Congress, Windows-based personal computers, and research assistants. For
more information and application guidelines please visit the center webpage
at:
Item # 3 -- Seminar for Historical Administration: The 47th annual Seminar
for Historical Administration will take place at the Indiana Historical
Society in Indianapolis, 28 October to 18 November 2006. The three-week
intense residential program seeks to present in-depth sessions on a range
of topics of interest to museum/history organization managers and
professionals, including marketing, interpretation, fund-raising, human
resources, ethics, and historic preservation. For information about this
year's offering, visit http://www.aaslh.org/histadmin.htm .
5. ARTICLES OF INTEREST
One posting this week: In"The Case of Roberts's Missing Papers"
(Washington Post; 11 May 2006): Post reporter Christopher Lee investigates
NARA's ongoing effort to locate the missing Affirmative Action file that
figured prominently in the confirmation hearing of Chief Justice John G.
Roberts. For the story tap into:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
.