Government Affairs Committee

The Committee advises the SHA President, Board, and SHA members on government actions that impact our field and historical archaeological places.

In May 2025, the Committee conducted a webinar for SHA members on threats and attacks against historical archaeology and historic preservation: Society for Historical Archaeology May 28, 2025 Government Affairs Webinar Presentation.

Below are one-pagers created by our historic preservation partners. We are posting these so SHA members can use these one-pagers in their outreach to members of Congress and state and local government officials as part of our campaign to counter the threats to the national Historic Preservation Fund, a critical funding mechanism for State and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices and state, tribal and local historic preservation programs:

Preservation Under Threat from the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers on threats to the Historic Preservation Fund
Recent Federal Actions Impact on Local Commissions from the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions
About the HPF from the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions on the importance of the Historic Preservation Fund

Listed below are letters SHA and our historic preservation partners have submitted in response to actions by the Administration and Congress. We will be updating this webpage with future letters and other communications on a regular basis.

Date
Dec 10, 2025	SHA letter responding to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Request for information on the possibility of commercial leasing for mineral extraction on the Outer Continental Shelf offshore the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Feb 26, 2025	Department of Interior Secretarial Orders
Feb 28, 2025	Letter on Senate Joint Resolution 11 on Underwater Archaeological Resources
March 10, 2025	SHA Letter to the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture on Staff Layoffs
April 8, 2025	Letter in Support of Nashville Arc haeological Review Process
April 9, 2025	SHA Letter to Department of Agriculture Secretary’s Memorandum 1078-006, Increasing Timber Production and Designating an Emergency Situation on National Forest System Lands
June 27, 2025	Letter to Office of Management and Budget on Delay in FY25 Historic Preservation Fund Distribution This letter was sent to the Office of Management and Budget on the delay in distributing the Historic Preservation Fund, Fiscal Year 2025 funding to State and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices. The Society for American Archaeology took the lead in preparing the letter. SAA also sent copies to House and Senate Interior Appropriations staff, as well as House Natural Resources and Senate Energy and Natural Resources staff.
July 10, 2025	The Preservation Partners submitted a letter to House and Senate Committees in support of renewal of funding for the Historic Preservation Fund in Fiscal Year 2026. SHA signed on to the letter.
August 23, 2025	SHA comments on the U.S. Army’s “Program Comment Plan for Army Warfighting Readiness and Associated Buildings, Structures, and Landscapes.
September 30, 2025	Joint SHA and Society for American Archaeology letter to the Secretary of the Federal Communications Commission on proposed rulemaking “Modernizing the Commission’s National Environmental Policy Act Rules.”
October 29, 2025	SHA’s written testimony for the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing examining the Section 106 process under the National Historic Preservation Act.
November 17, 2025	Joint SHA and Society for American Archaeology letter to the Department of Interior (DOI) on the DOI’s proposal to revoke the 20-year administrative minerals leasing withdrawal of federal lands within the 10-mile protection zone around Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

Government Affairs Newsletters