Please read the following article from Ancestry Daily News. If you think that this is a good idea, you may tell your Senator and Representatives to please support this plan by accessing the following Web sites. You might like to pass it on to other Genealogy related Lists. Thanks, Robert Roach http://www.senate.gov/ http://www.house.gov/writerep/ ============================================================ PRESIDENT PROPOSES BUDGET INCREASE FOR NARA <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> ============================================================ President Clinton has proposed a budget increase of $77,755,000 for Fiscal Year 2001 that would enable the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to renovate the original National Archives Building in downtown Washington, D.C., and advance initiatives in four major areas under NARA's Strategic Plan: ~ Improve records management in the Federal Government ~ Meet special challenges posed by electronic records ~ Expand public access to records ~ Meet storage and preservation needs of growing quantities of records. For improving government records management, the budget requests an addition of $992,000 to extend NARA's Targeted Assistance Program to Federal agencies in more regions of the country as well as in Washington, D.C. Through this partnership program, agencies with particularly severe records management needs receive priority help from NARA. For meeting electronic records challenges, the budget requests an addition of $902,000 for helping Federal agencies manage electronic records by testing guidance within NARA itself, and for adding three high-level professionals to assist with the development and implementation of an Electronic Records Archives (ERA). With our base funding plus these funds, NARA will continue working towards this ERA within the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure. Through this partnership, the San Diego Supercomputer Center has produced prototype demonstrations for preserving large volumes of electronic records such as email messages in a relatively short time. We now need to continue research toward building an archives that can preserve any kind of electronic record in a format that frees it from the computer system in which it was created, an archives that also can meet requests for that record using a variety of tools available today and advanced technologies that will be developed for tomorrow. All this could be a major breakthrough in NARA's search for a system to accession, preserve, and provide electronic access to electronic records of the Federal Government. For expanding public access to records, the budget requests an increase of $14,516,000 for the following initiatives: ~ Improving reference services for records needed by America's veterans ~ Expanding NARA's online offerings via the Internet to customers nationwide ~ Upgrading NARA's communications infrastructure to improve service capabilities for customers and staff nationwide ~ Meeting requirements of the Administration's records declassification order, and ~ Taking custody of and beginning to process the records of the Clinton Administration in compliance with the Presidential Records Act. For meeting storage and preservation needs of growing quantities of records, the budget requests an increase of $6,528,000 to ensure the survival of veterans' records in jeopardy, make NARA's facilities more secure, and move Administration records into temporary quarters in Little Rock in preparation for the Clinton Presidential Library. The major increase proposed in the budget is $88,000,000 for the renovation NARA has been repairing of the original National Archives Building, now nearly two-thirds of a century old. The work will include correcting mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire safety deficiencies; retrofitting the Rotunda to display America's Charters of Freedom (the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights) in new encasements currently under preparation; bringing the building into full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act; upgrading storage conditions to meet modern archival standards; and providing sufficient exhibit and public-use space to accommodate increasing numbers of visitors. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Best Wishes, Juliana Smith, Editor, Ancestry Daily News Jennifer Browning, Associate Editor Please feel free to circulate this newsletter to other genealogy enthusiasts! We hope that you will also credit the Daily News as the source. To subscribe to this newsletter, visit http://www.ancestry.com/ and type your e-mail address in the box provided, or send an e-mail message to: mailto:ancestry_daily_news@anclist001.ancestry.com with the word 'subscribe' in the subject line. For comments or submissions to the Daily News, e-mail: mailto:editor@ancestry-inc.com <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> ********************************************************************