NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 12, #44; 16 November 2006)

1. NEW NCH EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR SELECTED
2. A LAME DUCK CONGRESS WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? WHAT ABOUT FY-2007 APPROPRIATIONS?
3. WITHOUT FANFARE, PRESIDENT BUSH AWARDS HUMANITIES MEDALS
4. MARINES AND MARTIN LUTHER KING HONORED WITH MUSEUMS AND MEMORIALS
5. KLUGE PRIZE WINNERS ANNOUNCED FRANKLIN AND YU
6. BITS AND BYTES: Memorial Service for Larry Levine
7. ARTICLES OF INTEREST: "Crisis in Civics Ed? Revival is Under Way" (The Christian Science Monitor); "Oral History Under Review" (Chronicle of
Higher Education)

1. NEW NCH EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR SELECTED The Executive Committee of the National Coalition for History is pleased to announce that an "enthusiastic and unanimous agreement" has been reached in the selection of a new Executive Director for the National Coalition for History to replace R. Bruce Craig who is moving to Canada at the end of the year. He is Leland J. White, currently Director of Government Relations for the National Society of Professional Engineers.

Mr. White is an attorney with nearly twenty years experience in government relations with membership associations, as well as several years in government as a legislative specialist. In addition to a degree in law, White earned a Master's Degree in History from George Mason University where he worked under Roy Rosenzweig.

The NCH Executive Director position was advertised widely in various history, archives, and government affairs publications. The Search Committee was comprised of the NCH Executive Board plus several others: (in alphabetical order) Nancy Beaumont, Society of American Archivists; Charlene Bickford, Association for Documentary Editors; Lee Formwalt, Organization of American Historians; James Gardner, National Council on Public History; Arnita A. Jones (Chair), American Historical Association; Martha Kumar, American Political Science Association; and Brian Martin of History Associates.

Mr. White will begin work at the NCH in early December at which time a brief transition with Bruce Craig will take place. Later in the month tentatively scheduled for 11 December there will be a public event to bid farewell to Bruce and to welcome Lee; additional details relating to that event will be forthcoming.

2. A LAME DUCK CONGRESS WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? WHAT ABOUT FY-2007 APPROPRIATIONS? Democrats swept back into power in the House last week and they also will control the Senate as the last two (and the closest) races in Montana and Virginia fell to Democratic candidates. When the 110th Congress convenes in January the Democrats will have at least a 15-member majority in the House (several of the closest contests are expected to go to a recount) and a 51 to 49 majority in the Senate. Hill watchers are now wondering what will happen now that Congress has returned for its lame-duck session? One of the key questions is whether the Republican controlled 109th Congress will be able to reach agreement with Democratic lawmakers on outstanding FY-2007 appropriations bills, or whether Congress headed for another Continuing Resolution (CR) thereby leaving the tough decisions that need to be made to the 110th Congress when it convenes in January?

Lame-duck sessions are always difficult, especially for defeated politicians. But there are 11 outstanding spending bills that Congress needs to address, including the budgets for the National Archives and Records Administration (as well as the National Historical Publications and Records Commission), the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Department of Education, including its "Teaching American History" initiative.

There does not seem to be any consensus of opinion on the Hill regarding what the Republicans or the Democrats are likely to do with the pending FY-2007 appropriation bills . Some expect that the Republican leadership will want to make their final mark on the federal budget and will ram through on a partisan vote all the appropriations measures in one giant omnibus bill. Others feel that they may simply pass another CR, leave the decisions to the Democrats in January, and let them take the heat for making the tough funding decisions. However, this seems unlikely because there are so many special interest appropriations going to Republican members, that few of them are likely to risk losing their earmarks when the power change comes.

For the most part, federal agency heads dislike Continuing Resolutions (CR) they are rough on federal agencies in that administrators do not know what their final budget number will be. CRs also make it difficult to execute programs, to hire staff, or to enter into contracts. The longer a CR remains in place the more difficult it is for agencies -- especially for contracting officers who must quickly obligate funds or risk losing them.

Hill watchers also closely watched the contest for the Majority Leader's post. The two contestants were Steny Hoyer (D- MD), who has done much in the past to support the National Archives (Archives II in College Park is in his Congressional district), and John Murtha (D-PA), a conservative lawmaker who stunned many earlier in the year when he called for the United States to begin working to pull American troops out of Iraq. Though Murtha received the endorsement of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, by a substantial margin Hoyer was elected to the post.

3. WITHOUT FANFARE, PRESIDENT BUSH AWARDS HUMANITIES MEDALS During a private awards ceremony held on 9 November in the Oval Office of the White House President George Bush presented the 2006 National Humanities Medals and National Medals of the Arts. Ten of the 20 winners were academics, of which several are historians.

The academics who were awarded humanities medals are: Fouad Ajami, professor and director of the Middle East Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University, James M. Buchanan, a professor emeritus of Economics at George Mason University; Robert Eagles, a professor emeritus of comparative literature at Princeton University; Mary Lefkowitz, a classicist at Wellesley College; Bernard Lewis, a professor emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton, Mark Noll, a professor of religious history at the University of Notre Dame; and Kevin Starr, a professor of history at the University of Southern California.

In addition, two independent scholars were awarded medals: Nickolas Davatzes, the founder of the History Channel, and Meryle Secrest, a biographer who lives in Washington D.C. A humanities medal was also awarded to the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, a public-policy research center located on the campus of Stanford University.

A day or so after the awards were announced the Washington Post printed a brief story wondering "why so little fanfare?" Apparently there were no press opportunities, no special public announcement, no information there wasn't even a web-site feature "nothing" stated the Post just a list posted on White House press release page with the subject line "PERSONNEL ANNOUNCEMENT." The only explanation the newspaper could offer was that the White House did not want to draw attention to the awards that were being given to Fouad Ajami and Bernard Lewis "whose views helped get us into Iraq in the first place."

4. MARINES AND MARTIN LUTHER KING HONORED WITH MUSEUMS AND MEMORIALS Over the Memorial Day weekend, President George Bush attended the dedication ceremony of the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia. A few days later the President joined former President Bill Clinton and attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial on the Mall in Washington D.C.

The Marine Museum event coincided with the 231st birthday of the Corps. The 118,000-square foot museum is adjacent to the Quantico marine base on lands donated by Prince William County. The museum is the centerpiece of a 135-acre Marine Corps Heritage Center, which, when completed, will include a parade deck, memorial walking trails, a chapel, an IMAX theater, and a hotel complex.

The museum building a gleaming slanted pinnacle that juts our over the trees along Interstate 95 is shaped to suggest the famous photograph of five marines and one Navy corpsman raising the flag at Iwo Jima in 1945. Inside a steel and glass atrium various aircraft are displayed. Throughout the rest of the building visitors can learn about the history of the Marine Corps from its founding to the present. When the museum is fully built out it will encompass 181,000 square feet. Admission is free.

On 13 November President Bush and former President Bill Clinton joined thousands on the National Mall in Washington D.C. to dedicate the spot where a memorial to honor Martin Luther King Jr. will be built. The site is along the edge of the Tidal Basin, midway between the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials where King delivered his famous "I Have A Dream" speech in August 1963. The memorial will be the first on the Mall honoring an African American.

At the dedication, Bush and Clinton were joined by talk show host Oprah Winfrey, Senator Barack Obama (D-ILL), poet Maya Angelou, and three of King's grandchildren. Though fund-raising for the $100 million project is still ongoing (about 2/3rd of the needed money has been raised) the four-acre memorial is scheduled to open in 2008.

5. KLUGE PRIZE WINNERS ANNOUNCED FRANKLIN AND YU John Hope Franklin, 91, and Yu Ying-shih, 76, have been named the recipients of the third John W. Kluge Prize for lifetime achievement in the study of humanity.

Endowed by Library of Congress benefactor John W. Kluge, the Kluge Prize rewards lifetime achievement in the wide range of disciplines not covered by the Nobel prizes, including history, philosophy, politics, anthropology, sociology, religion, criticism in the arts and humanities, and linguistics. Each awardee this year will receive half of the $1 million prize.

According to a Library of Congress statement, "Franklin and Yu have each played a pioneering role in bringing previously neglected, major aspects of American and Chinese history into the mainstream of scholarship and public consciousness of their respective native lands. Both have done demanding work using a wide variety of primary documents and historical approaches. Each has had an enduring impact on both scholarship and his society, and has opened a path for others to find new materials and methodologies for understanding both their and our cultures."

When interviewed by a New York Times reporter from his Durham, North Carolina home, Franklin stated that he was "somewhat speechless" after learning of the award. He announced that some of the prize money would be donated to a fellowship at Fisk University in Nashville which he endowed in memory of his wife, Aurelia, a librarian. Mr. Yu did not yet know what he would do with his prize money though he humorously assured the reporter that part of it would surely "go to taxes."

6. BITS AND BYTES Item #1 Memorial Service for Larry Levine: The death of Larry Levine is keenly felt by many. In recognition of this, a group of George Mason University colleagues have scheduled an East Coast memorial service for Larry, to take place 16 December 2006 from 4:30-6:30 PM Saturday, in the Atrium of Hazel Hall at the Arlington campus of George Mason University, 3301 Fairfax Drive, Arlington, Virginia. For additional information contact Roy Rosenzweig at roy@gmu.edu . See also the H-Net posting at http://www.h-net.org/

In recognition of Levine's life and accomplishments, the Organization of American Historians has voted to create an annual Lawrence W. Levine Prize for the best book in cultural history. A $50,000 prize endowment fund would make this possible. Checks can be made out to "OAH Prize Fund" with "Levine Award" on the memo line, and mailed to Roy Rosenzweig or Mike O'Malley, Department of History and Art History, MS 3G1, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030.

7. ARTICLES OF INTEREST Two postings this week: In "Crisis in Civics Ed? Revival is Under Way" (26 October 2006; The Christian Science Monitor), one finds a story about the current crisis in history and civics education and efforts in the public and private sector to counter civics illiteracy. For the article go to: http://www.csmonitor.com

Also, a free access posting from the Chronicle of Higher Education that in its 10 November 2006 issue published a long article "Oral History Under Review". The article is a must read for researchers who use oral history as a research tool and who are required to seek IRB approval for their projects. The article can be accessed at: http://chronicle.com