As of early August, 867 Preserve America Communities have been designated, 34 Preserve America Stewards recognized, 20 Presidential Awards bestowed, and more than $21 million awarded for 281 competitive grant projects throughout the country. While Preserve America Grants were not funded in FY 2011, and it appears unlikely that they will be funded for FY 2012, the First Lady continues to be engaged in the program with the formal designation of Preserve America Communities and Stewards.
The U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Interior and Environment Appropriations approved the FY 2012 Interior spending bill on July 7, 2011; it was approved by the full committee on July 12. The bill zeroed out funding for Preserve America and Save America’s Treasures grants (as proposed in the President’s budget) and also included a 9 percent cut ($5 million) to the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) from $54.5 million to $49.5 million ($42.5 for State Historic Preservation Offices [SHPOs] and $7 million for Tribal Historic Preservation Offices [THPOs]). The ACHP would receive $5.498 million for its operations (an 11 percent cut from the FY 2012 Administration request). All of these numbers reflect FY 2009 levels.
The proposed bill would provide overall funding for the Interior Department of $9.9 billion, $720 million below the agency’s current budget and $1.2 billion below the President’s FY 2012 request. This translates into the following:
- A $129 million cut for the National Park Service (NPS) down to $2.5 billion.
- National recreation and preservation programs, which include the National Register of Historic Places and National Heritage Areas, were funded at $49.363 million (a net reduction of about 15 percent from $57.87 million in FY 2011).
- American Battlefield Protection Grants were funded at $2 million under NPS land acquisition, an increase of $640,000 from FY 2011.
Assuming that the full House of Representatives will vote to accept the bill as proposed, the focus will shift to the Senate and possibly a conference committee to reconcile differences and try to come up with an agreed budget. Given the current political climate, it is quite possible that a final budget will not be in place until well after the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1, 2011. A stop-gap measure may have to be negotiated.
An earlier “dear colleague” letter circulated by Reps. Michael Turner and Russ Carnahan as co-chairs of the House Historic Preservation Caucus had asked for support for the HPF totaling $50 million for SHPOs, $11 million for THPOs, and $9 million for fully competitive, non-earmark grant programs “like Save America’s Treasures and Preserve America.”