WASHINGTON — As Hillary Rodham Clinton was leaving the White House, she asked Laura Bush first lady to first lady to continue one program if nothing else — the historic preservation program Save America’s Treasures.
Bush said she knew about the project and pledged to see it through.
Now, the grant program Clinton created that helped restore the original star-spangled banner, Rosa Parks’ bus, President Abraham Lincoln’s summer cottage in Washington and hundreds of sites across the country is on the current administration’s chopping block.
“The unfortunate thing is we had no warning” the program was being wiped out of President Barack Obama’s budget, said Bobbie Greene McCarthy, who has overseen the program at the National Trust for Historic Preservation and was Clinton’s deputy chief of staff. “It was like being hit by a truck.”
The program has paid out nearly $294 million over the past decade to more than 1,100 sites and generated at least $377 million more in matching funds, according to the National Trust. The National Park Service administers the program, but the nonprofit trust is its chief advocate and helps coordinate applicants.
Historic-preservation advocates have shifted into survival mode.
They argue that the program, with its relatively meager federal funding of $30 million annually, has created more than 16,000 jobs across the country at a cost of about $14,000 each. They point out the White House’s federal stimulus package is creating jobs at a cost of $248,000 each.
At the same time, the program has become a favorite pot of money for members of Congress to fund pet projects through earmarks. Lawmakers have sent home money to restore small-town movie houses and county courthouses.
The earmark process might have sullied its reputation as the program’s competitive, merit-based process could be bypassed with a willing congressional sponsor. It is also a tight budget year with shifting priorities.
Budget watchdogs have been critical of the earmarks for years because they say the process rewards political muscle, not project merit.
“That certainly makes it a less desirable program from a budgetary perspective because it means it’s inviting waste into the system,” said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense.
The Office of Management and Budget said that Save America’s Treasures and a related program started by the Bush administration called Preserve America “lack rigorous performance metrics and evaluation efforts.” And at least half the program’s funding “is provided without using merit-based criteria.”
National Park Service spokesman David Barna said the Interior Department is simply facing a tight budget and wants to reclaim the program’s $30 million for priorities in national parks, which face a $9 billion maintenance backlog. “I don’t think it’s fallen out of favor. It’s just a matter of priorities,” he said. “We all have to do as much as we can to reduce government spending.”
Advocates are calling on friendly ears on Capitol Hill and might try to reach current first lady Michelle Obama.
“I don’t think it’s too late,” McCarthy said. “We’re trying everything.”
