From Preservation Action:
A series of harmful bills were introduced in the House that would limit the availability funds for the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF), the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), and other important programs. H.R. 2167 would limit the availability of funds for the HPF to $102.66 million. This is roughly half of the HPF's current FY23 enacted funding level of $204.5 million. While H.R. 2227 would limit the availability of funding for the ACHP to $6.89 million. Additional bills (H.R. 2165 through H.R. 2170) would limit other line items in the National Park Service budget including Operations and the National Recreation and Preservation program.
These bills were introduced by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT), Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) and Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) as part of a series of 521 different bills to reduce or eliminate funding for specific agencies and programs across the federal budget. According to the press releasethese bills are aimed at addressing the national debt as part of negotiations over increasing the debt limit.
No doubt these cuts would be absolutely devastating for historic preservation. While concerning, these are clearly messaging bills from a small cohort of lawmakers and have little chance of being taken up. In fact more than 100 bipartisan lawmakers recently signed letters in support of $225 million in funding for the HPF. Preservation Action will continue to monitor these bills and advocate for robust funding for the HPF, the ACHP and other programs important to preservation.
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author and not necessarily the opinion of the editors of PreservationDirectory.com.
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