We’re sharing a recent Advocacy Alert from the National Council on Public History. The National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites is continuing to lift up advocacy opportunities as there is harm being done to the resources that many women’s history sites rely on. You can see more from the National Council on Public History here: https://ncph.org/what-is-public-history/advocacy/
We are continuing to witness many large-scale attacks against public history and public historians in the United States. This week, we encourage you to contact your US congressional representatives about one or more of the following issues:
National Park Service (NPS) Reductions-in-Force (RIF)
- What’s happening: NPS is expected to issue around 1,500 RIFs as early as May 23. NPS headquarters, regional offices, and Cultural Resources Stewardship are expected to be hit the hardest. These RIFs come with an expectation that parks will not reduce services or operations.
- What to highlight for reps: These RIFs will have a devastating rippling economic impact and endanger America’s cultural, historical, and natural resources.
- Link for more details: https://www.govexec.
com/workforce/2025/05/ thousands-layoffs-hit- interior-national-parks- imminently/405145/
Historic Preservation Fund Withheld
- What’s happening: Congressionally appropriated FY 2025 funding through the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) has been withheld, which has already resulted in dramatic layoffs at State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs) and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices (THPOs) across the country.
- What to highlight for reps: Assert congressional “power of the purse” by releasing already-appropriated funding so that State and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices can do the work that economically and culturally benefits our communities.
- Link for more details: https://ncshpo.org/2025/05/05/
hpunderthreat/
Upheaval at the Library of Congress
- What’s happening: Trump summarily fired the Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden on May 7, 2025, and the director of the US Copyright Office Shira Perlmutter, which is part of the Library, on May 12. In addition to naming deputy attorney general Todd Blanche, a person with no library experience, as acting Librarian of Congress, the Trump administration reportedly has canceled the budget for the National Digital Newspaper Program, the office that maintains the website Chronicling America.
- What to highlight for reps: The importance of having nonpartisan, trained professionals in these positions, and the impact that projects like Chronicling America have for educators, historians, and genealogists.
- Links for more details:
Librarian of Congress: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/us/politics/trump- librarian-congress-carla- hayden.html
US Copyright Office: https://www.law360.com/articles/2338659
National Digital Newspaper Program: https://bsky.app/profile/ryancordell.org/post/ 3loy6l455js23
DOGE Reshaping of the Department of Interior (DOI)
- What’s happening: Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum has given DOGE aides wide latitude to “create significant efficiencies” at DOI. This portends more drastic changes for the agency responsible for the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Geological Survey, and many others.
- What to highlight for reps: Agencies like the NPS are already doing a tremendous amount of work using a small percentage of the country’s budget. To improve these agencies, they should get more funding and not be subject to the whims of tech bros who are stealing our data.
- Link for more details: https://www.washingtonpost.
com/climate-environment/2025/ 04/21/tyler-hassen-department- of-interior/
2026 Budget: Protect NPS, IMLS, NEH, HPF, and the NEA
- What’s happening: The current administration released a proposed budget plan for FY2026 that proposes deep cuts to the National Park Service (NPS) and eliminates the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF), and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
- What to highlight for reps: Fully fund these small but mighty agencies that use taxpayer money to benefit local economies, protect cultural resources, and tell our country’s important stories.
- Links for more details:
NEA/NEH: https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/trump-aims-to- eliminate-the-national- endowment-for-the-humanities- 1234740525/
HPF: https://savingplaces.org/action-center/updates/speak- up-for-federal-historic- preservation-investment
Ways to Take Action:
Postcards and letters – be sure they are postmarked from your representative’s district
Phone Calls – okay to leave a voicemail; when possible, make sure the area code of the number you call from matches your representative’s district
Email – when possible, revise form language to be more personalized
Visit Elected Officials’ Offices – make appointments in advance
Find Your Representative: https://www.usa.gov/elected-