PLEASE SUPPORT FULL FUNDING FOR THE HISTORIC PRESERVATION FUND.

All across our country and especially in Missouri, the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) has helped to preserve important historic resources. Through a bi-partisan commitment made in 1976, Congress agreed to deposit a very small portion of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) lease revenues into the new Historic Preservation Fund.  The portion of the fund that Missouri receives from the HPF is administered by the State Historic Preservation Office, which has used the funds wisely to save and protect scores of historic places in Missouri, including grants for many important public buildings, administration of tax credit and federal project review, the National Register of Historic Places, and in the survey and inventory of historic resources.

Annually the Historic Preservation Fund receives a deposit of $150 million in OCS oil lease revenue. In order to use the funds, however, Congress has to appropriate them. This creates a dilemma as for over forty years the HPF has never been awarded the full amount – and in fact has received far less, with over $3.3 billion having been diverted away from the fund and spent elsewhere. In spite of the financial shortcomings, the HPF has provided for the listing of over 80,000 historic places on the National Register of Historic Places, the survey of millions of acres for cultural resources, and created 2.4 million jobs and facilitated billions of dollars of investment in the rehabilitation of historic buildings.*

The Historic Preservation Fund was due for re-funding in September of 2015. To date, nothing has been done. We urge you, our congressmen and senators in Washington to fully and permanently fund the HPF to ensure that the historic resources of Missouri and the nation are properly documented, protected and reused wherever possible.

Thanks to U.S. Representatives Mike Turner (R-OH) and Rush Holt (D-NJ) as well as Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) for co-sponsoring FY15 "Dear Colleague HPF Appropriations" letters on the Hill. The House letter garnered a record number of 104 signatures (one of them from our own Emanuel Cleaver - THANK YOU) and The Senate letter 23 signatures.

HISTORIC PRESERVATION NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT. PLEASE MAKE IT A PRIORITY TO PRESERVE MISSOURI’S HERATIGE BY SUPPORTING FULL FUNDING OF THE HISTORIC PRESERVATION FUND (HPF) IN THE HOUSE AND IN THE SENATE. 

*Some information provided by the National Council of State Historic Preservation Officers