Georgia Archives Matters -- Urgent Call To Action

The following was published in Georgia Archives Matters and RPAC is requesting our sharing it with Upfront with NGS readers.

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Archives Update: On To The Senate

The closer it gets to the end of the legislative session the faster things move.

Before most people had had their first cup of coffee on Monday, one House of Representatives committee had met and approved a budget for the Georgia Archives. A second committee approved the budget Monday afternoon.

The House Appropriations Higher Education Subcommittee and the full Appropriations Committee agreed on a figure of $224,113 in addition to the $3,851,428 recommended by the governor. The additional amount is roughly half of what University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby recommended.

There is only one more step for any Archives legislation in the House of Representatives: approval of the budget by the full House.

The Senate will take up both the budget and House Bill 287 (the transfer bill) in the coming days.

The Senate will discuss House Bill 287 on Wednesday, March 13 at 3 p.m.

Preliminary meetings on the Senate’s version of the budget already are underway by members of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee.

The Senate, in its version of the budget, could recommend more than the House. As always, the budget will go to a House-Senate Conference Committee in order to development a budget both houses can support.

At this point, the only way to get more money for the Archives is to convince members of the Senate Appropriations Committee to recommend more than $224,000.

To all of those who wrote or called over the weekend or on Monday: your voices were heard. To all of those who have voiced support for the Archives over the last few months: you are making a difference.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Terry England said in his presentation of the budget on Monday that he had heard from “many, many, many” Archives supporters. No other budget issue rated such a comment from the chairman.

Keep up the great work.

Below is a list of Senate committee members:

Senate Appropriations Committee Members

Jack Hill Renee Unterman Tim Golden Don Balfour Buddy Carter Ronnie Chance Bill Cowsert John Crosby Gail Davenport Vincent Fort Steve Gooch Bill Heath Judson Hill Bill Jackson

Butch Miller Jeff Mullis Jack Murphy Valencia Seay David Shafer Freddie Powell Sims Cecil Staton Horacena Tate Curt Thompson Steve Thompson Lindsey Tippins Ross Tolleson John Wilkinson Tommie Williams

Note: Sens. Carter, Chance, Cowsert, Davenport and Staton make up the Senate Higher Education Appropriations Committee.

Contact information can be found here: http://www.senate.ga.gov/committees/en-US/committee.aspx?Committee=103&Session=23

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