US grant program that restored Rosa Parks’ bus, star-spangled banner is now endangered
By Brett Zongker, APSunday, March 7, 2010
Grants that saved historic relics now endangered
WASHINGTON — The grant program that helped restore the original star-spangled banner, Rosa Parks’ bus and hundreds of historic sites is now on the Obama administration’s chopping block.
The program, Save America’s Treasures, was created by then-first lady Hillary Clinton while her husband was in the oval office. It continued under the Bush administration.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation says the program has paid out nearly $294 million in the past decade to more than 1,100 different sites. Bobbie Greene McCarthy, who has overseen Save America’s Treasures and was Hillary Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, says there was no warning the program was being wiped out of President Barack Obama’s budget.
On the Net:
Save America’s Treasures: www.preservationnation.org
