FY11 Budget – SHPOs Maintain Funding, but the News Isn't all Good

This morning President Obama released his FY11 proposed budget. In a year when virtually every program was considered for the chopping block, the President is proposing to maintain State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) funding at $46.5 million - this is the pool of funding from which the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation in Washington draws - and where our annual Certified Local Government pass-through funding stems. The budget also proposes to maintain Tribal Historic Preservation Office funding at $8 million. However, all is not good for the Historic Preservation Fund as the President proposes eliminating the Save Americas Treasures (SAT) and Preserve America grant programs. (All current SAT and PA grants would continue to be funded.) According to the White House, SAT program benefits are unclear, given the lack of "rigorous performance metrics and evaluation efforts." The chart below depicts the amounts President Obama proposed for FY10, the final FY10 appropriations, and what the President is proposing for FY11.

	FY10 Proposed Budget	FY10 Final Appropriations	FY11 Proposed Budget
Historic Pres Fund Total	$77.675	$79.5	$54.5
SHPOs	$46.5	$46.5	$46.5
THPOs	$8.0	$8.0	$8.0
Save America's Treasures	$20.0	$25.0	$0.0
Preserve America	$3.175	3.175*	$0.0
Inventory/Survey	$0.0	$0.0	$0.0
*Funded through the Recreation and Preservation Account

Numbers are in millions  Next Steps During the next several weeks Congress will review the budget and hold numerous hearings with Agency officials.  Most likely, Secretary Salazar and Director Jarvis will testify before the House and Senate Interior appropriations subcommittees and Natural Resource committees. The national preservation partners will be actively working to restore the grant program funding  and appropriations will be a major focus of Advocacy Day.