ACRA joined with 16 partner preservation organizations last week in urging the Interior Department to release congressionally appropriated funding to SHPOs and THPOs.
The letter, spearheaded by the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO), comes as SHPOs and THPOs continue to await their fiscal year 2025 funding via the Historic Preservation Fund. The letter states that “[d]elayed distribution of fiscal year 2025 funding has led offices to terminate staff positions and retract preservation project funding.”
Noting that the funding delay hurts the ability of state governments to carry out federally mandated preservation responsibilities and fails to acknowledge the federal government’s trust responsibility to Tribes, the letter urges Interior Secretary Doug Burgum “to proceed with awarding the funds Congress has appropriated . . . so that our national historic preservation program may continue to function, awarded preservation projects may proceed as planned, and our nation’s heritage is not unnecessarily put at risk.”
Separately, members of Congress are calling on Burgum to expedite the release of funding. During a hearing before the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee last week, in response to a question from subcommittee ranking member Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Burgum testified that Department is waiting on approval from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to send out a funding notice to S/THPOs but that his Department is “pushing hard on trying to get this out.”