H.R. 2764, the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, passed in the United States House of Representatives last night, and is presently pending in the United States Senate. As of 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday evening, passage looked promising after key planks were added concerning funding for the Iraq action.

If passed, the bill currently calls for an increase in appropriations for several key preservation-related programs. Those include the following proposed increases over Fiscal Year 2007:

State Historic Preservation Offices would receive $39.379 million, an increase of $2.159 million;

Tribal Historic Preservation Offices would receive $6.399 million, an increase of $953,000;

Save Americas Treasures would receive $25 million, an increase of $16.58 million (subject to a 1.5 percent reduction applicable to Department of the Interior programming);

Preserve America would receive $7.5 million, an increase of $2.46 million ((subject to a 1.5 percent reduction applicable to Department of the Interior programming);

Please consider contacting the offices of Ohio’s two US Senators on Wednesday to express your support for the budget bill and these increases for preservation programming.