Call to Action: Preserving Historic Records Bill

The Preserving the American Historical Record (PAHR) is a bill to provide federal formula grants to every state for projects that preserve historical records and make them more accessible. House Resolution (H.R.) 6056 has a stated purpose “To authorize the Archivist of the United States to make grants to States for the preservation and dissemination of historical records” and was introduced by Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY-22) and Chris Cannon (R-UT) and referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on May 14.

This bill, if passed, can conceivably result in grants to states to fund records preservation and access initiatives, all of which may benefit genealogists and historians.

The time has come to rally support for this important legislation that will provide resources for archival repositories and cultural heritage institutions that house primary resources genealogists and other historical researchers use. We hope that you will consider preparing a letter to send to your congressman. Please visit the Preserving the American Historical Record (PAHR) website to learn more. There also is a draft letter there which you can download to your computer in RTF (Rich Text Format, readable by every word processor), and customize to your specific thoughts and concerns. You can send it to your U.S. Senator and Representative. For a list of these individuals, please visit http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm for Senators' contacts and https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml for Representatives.

With the slashing of library and archive budgets in Florida as a result of the passage of Proposition One in February 2008, this is an ideal opportunity to help obtain critical funding to help these insititutions continue their invaluable work.

Thank you for your support!

George G. Morgan
Director
FGS (Tampa)