It’s a brand new year, but Washington is facing the same problems that stymied it in 2023.
With the next deadline for avoiding a shutdown coming at the end of this week, the White House and congressional Republicans came to an agreement last week on overall spending levels for the current fiscal year, which began last October. The numbers they agreed to largely hew to the figures that President Biden hammered out with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) last summer – and which raised the ire of the arch-conservative House Freedom Caucus.
But because advancing appropriations bills through Congress takes time, lawmakers will need to pass yet another short-term stopgap funding bill, or “continuing resolution” (CR) in Hill parlance, to keep the government open. Passage of such a CR last September is what drove rebellious members of the Freedom Caucus to file a motion to evict McCarthy from the Speaker’s chair, which led to a 22-day impasse that paralyzed the House until Republicans landed on Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) as Speaker.
Now, the Freedom Caucus is demanding that Johnson renege on his funding deal with President Biden and not put another CR on the House floor – with some going so far as to open the door to trying to oust Johnson from the Speaker’s chair.
This all leaves Congress and the White House in the same bind as last year: approve a short-term funding bill to keep the government open, which could cause more chaos in the House. Or allow major parts of the government to shut down.
If that weren’t enough to raise blood pressures in Washington, Democrats and Republicans are still haggling over a bill to provide support for Ukraine and Israel while bolstering border security. House Republicans are looking to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejando Mayorkas over the border (and possibly President Biden, for reasons TBD). The White House is dealing with the fallout over Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization, about which the Pentagon failed to inform the Commander-in-Chief.
And then there is the matter of the election, which is now less than 300 days away. With the Iowa caucus Monday and the New Hampshire primary around the corner, the political heat will only get worse before it gets better. As Irish rock group U2 once noted, nothing changes on New Year’s Day.
Despite the sound and fury, ACRA and its partners in the preservation community continue to press Congress and the White House to advance policies that enable the country to move forward while ensuring we take care of our heritage:
- ACRA and its allies continue to press Congress to reauthorize the Historic Preservation Fund, which supports the work of state and Tribal historic preservation offices.
- The preservation community is advocating that Congress maintain robust funding levels for programs at the Department of the Interior and other agencies that support preservation and CRM.
- ACRA is educating policymakers about the importance and value of Section 106, and working to oppose efforts to weaken the National Historic Preservation Act.
In the coming weeks, ACRA will provide more information about how firms can add their voice to these efforts and others. Partisanship hasn’t changed in the new year – but neither has the need for the industry to speak up for its values in Washington.
NASA Programmatic Agreement
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is proposing a nationwide programmatic agreement among NASA, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO) for management of NASA assets. The purpose of the NPA is to “create a process by which NASA can meet its responsibilities to manage its U.S. real property assets under Sections 106 and 110 of the NHPA in a manner that accommodates NASA’s mission and addresses the unique challenges of historic highly technical and scientific facilities.”
NASA is accepting comments on the proposed agreement until January 24, 2024. Click here for more in formation on the proposal and how to comment.
NAGPRA Webinars
The National Park Service’s (NPS) NAGPRA Program will host a series of 10 webinars on new NAGPRA regulations on the third Friday of every month from 1p.m. to 2:30p.m. ET. Registration is required, but the meeting information is always the same. Interested parties can register once and attend any session. Click here to sign up.