Tuesday, May 19, 2009

No Stimulus for You!

As the official numbers on the 2010 Obama budget request are released it is clear that history largely missed out on the stimulus. For most of the programs that benefit history, funding is flat or only slightly increased over previous years. The exceptions are the NEH and the National Park Service, but even there the increases are far short of the billions and billions of stimulus infrastructure being doled out around the country. Some examples from the National Coalition for History:History would have been a natural for stimulus funding, with so many worthy digital and oral history projects in need of funding. Some of us called for a new Federal Writer's Project just as Obama came into office. Unfortunately our national organizations remained on the sidelines as the stimulus bill was drafted. We missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do historical preservation work (restoration carpentry), so the jump in Park Service funding is good news for me.

Larry Cebula said...

The historical work that the NPS does is important and worthy of our support. I was just hoping for more than roads and bridges from the stimulus!