2022 Preservation Advocacy Week Recap
The Preservation League was pleased to join our colleagues from the New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and the New York Landmarks Conservancy to make up the New York delegation for Federal Preservation Advocacy Week, March 7-11. Our group held 14 meetings with Congressional and Senate staff, and we hope to convene additional meetings in coming weeks.
Like our peers from over 40 other states, plus Guam and the Federated States of Micronesia, we conveyed three main requests in our meetings. We asked legislators to:
Sign a letter in support of a $200 million appropriation for the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) appropriation for Fiscal Year 2023. The HPF, which provides funding for SHPOs, Tribal Historic Preservation Offices (THPOs), and numerous grant programs, has been authorized at $150 million since it was established in 1976. From 2009 to 2021, the annual appropriation for the HPF ranged from $54 million to $153 million. The FY 2022 appropriation, announced during Advocacy Week when the appropriations bill for the current fiscal year was finally passed, is the highest ever at $173 million, including about $74 million to support the work of SHPOs and THPOs, with the rest dedicated to specific grants and preservation projects.
Co-sponsor H.R. 6589, the Historic Preservation Enhancement Act, recently introduced by Representatives Teresa Leger Fernandez and Earl Blumenauer. This bill permanently authorizes the Historic Preservation Fund, increases its authorization from $150 million to $300 million, and ensures $300 million is appropriated for the HPF each year. This represents a significant, much-needed improvement to the HPF. This new legislation has a handful of co-sponsors so far, including Congressman Joseph Morelle from New York’s 25th district. Preservation advocates have long asked for an increase in the HPF to reflect the growing workload of SHPOs and THPOs. The increase reflected in the FY2022 appropriation is welcome news, and signals the importance of raising the authorization so that this year’s bump won’t be an anomaly. The recently passed infrastructure bill creates an urgent need to increase SHPO and THPO funding, as staff face an imminent influx of billions of dollars’ worth of new construction projects that will require review.
Co-sponsor H.R. 2294, the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act of 2021 (“HTC-GO”), introduced last year by Representative Earl Blumenauer. This bill proposes several improvements to the federal historic tax credit program, including a temporary increase to a 30% credit for all projects, and a permanent increase to 30% for projects under $2.5 million, plus other changes that will make the credit more appealing to investors and easier for nonprofit organizations to use. H.R. 2294 has bipartisan support, including the support of seven Congresspeople from New York so far: Representatives Higgins, Katko, Delgado, Suozzi, Morelle, Stefanik, and Tenney. Senator Gillibrand is a co-sponsor of a similar bill in the Senate, S.2266. In our meetings we thanked those who are already co-sponsors, and asked others to join them.
Federal Advocacy Week is over, but advocacy for preservation at the federal level continues! Please contact your Congressperson and ask them to sign on to Representative Blumenauer’s letter in support of the annual HPF appropriation and co-sponsor H.R. 6589 (or in Congressman Morelle’s case, thank him for his co-sponsorship). If they are already a co-sponsor of H.R. 2294 thank them for their support; if not, please ask them to co-sponsor it. Your calls, which take just a few minutes, really do make a difference in demonstrating broad support for these important bills.