NATHPO Advocacy
COMMENT LETTERS
2024 Letters:
- NATHPO comment letter to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) on his draft Create Offshore Leadership and Livelihood Alignment By Operating Responsibly And Together for the Environment (COLLABORATE) Act, offshore wind bill.
- NATHPO comment letter to the National Park Service (NPS) on their proposed National Programmatic Agreement (NPA) for Section 106 reviews. Comments due: Feb 23, 2024.
2023 Letters:
- NATHPO comment letter to National Park Service on NPS’ intent to create a Nationwide Programmatic Agreement (NPA) to provide consistency in the application of Section 106 compliance procedures for federal cultural resources financial assistance activities.
- NATHPO comment letter to the Bureau of Land Management on the revision to the National Programmatic Agreement (NPA) for the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA).
- NATHPO comment letter to the White House Council on Native American Affairs on the proposed Sacred Sites best practices guide.
- NATHPO comment letter to the Council on Environmental Quality on the new National Environmental Protection Act revisions.
- NATHPO comment letter to the White House Council on Native American Affairs on the National Plan on Native Language Revitalization (Dear Tribal Leaders Letter).
- NATHPO comment letter to U.S. Department of Energy on the Coordinate Interagency Transmission Authorization and Permits (CITAP) Program to accelerate Federal environmental review and permitting processes for qualifying onshore electric transmission facilities.
- NATHPO support letter to the Southeastern Archaeological Conference (SEAC) on their image policy that requires authors to consult with descendant communities if they want to include images of burial items in articles in SEAC’s journal.
- NATHPO comment letter to the Department of Homeland Security on the proposed NPA program alternative to Section 106.
Upcoming comment letters NATHPO is drafting:
- NPS is also seeking comments on their draft TCP bulletin on Identifying, Evaluating, and Documenting Traditional Cultural Places. Comments due: Mar 25, 2024.
FEDERAL APPROPRIATIONS
Per the 1992 amendments to the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, federally recognized Tribal governments were able to create and operate Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (THPO) programs by officially entering into agreements with the National Park Service on behalf of the Secretary of the Interior. Among other tasks, THPOs may assume the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) responsibilities on Tribal lands and also receive funds for this purpose from the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF), also administered by the National Park Service. The HPF is supported by annual revenues from Outer Continental Shelf oil leases and assists states, local governments, and Indian Tribes with their historic preservation activities nationwide.