Press Release nr99-96
Press Release · Friday, July 16, 1999

Washington, DC

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a budget of $217,916,000 for Fiscal Year 2000 for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The appropriation package contains a significant part of what the Administration requested for NARA.

A version of the bill passed earlier by the Senate would provide $7,790,000 more than the House bill. Differences will be reconciled in a conference committee of House and Senate members at a time yet to be determined.

If approved by the Congress as a whole, the appropriations provided under both versions of the bill would be sufficient to enable NARA to carry forward such major initiatives as the following:

• preparation for renovation of the 63-year-old original National Archives Building;

• further development of the electronic catalog through which NARA is making descriptions of its holdings available via the Internet;

• preparation for opening in 2002 the 1930 Census records;

• increased preservation work on veterans' records and improved processes for meeting veterans' records requests;

• increased preservation work on non-textual records such as photographs and films;

• improvement of services in NARA reference rooms;

• expansion of targeted records-management assistance from NARA to Federal agencies;

• advancement of research and development on technologies for enabling NARA to preserve and provide public access to records in electronic forms.

Among other increases, the bill includes funds to fill 17 staff positions to help researchers in NARA reference rooms around the country, and 13 staff positions to help federal agencies with records management in Washington and in the regions.

The appropriation includes $6,000,000 for the grant program of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), which NARA administers. The NHPRC appropriation would be the same as NHPRC has had in FY 1999 for competitive grants.

For additional PRESS information, please contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at (301) 837-1700 or by e-mail.

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