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News & Events

NPPN events, partner events, upcoming grant rounds, and other relevant preservation news.

Historic Preservationists Across the Country Advocate for Federal Funding and Programs

May 31, 2025

Preservation organizations across the country are taking action to preserve the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) and support improvements to the Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit. Progress is being made, but it is critically important that those efforts continue as the FY26 budget is debated in Congress and HPF funds allocated for FY25 have not been released by the Office of Management and Budget.

Historic Preservation Fund

The FY25 HPF allocation remains unreleased by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), creating significant and immediate operational challenges for State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs), Tribal Historic Preservation Offices (THPOs), and Certified Local Governments nationwide. This will ultimately negatively impact the communities your organization serves since this delay threatens ongoing preservation projects, archaeological surveys, National Register nominations, Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit projects and critical preservation planning initiatives that protect our shared architectural and cultural heritage.

Simultaneously, as Congress prepares the FY26 budget, we face the sobering reality that the President’s FY26 budget proposal seeks to eliminate the Historic Preservation Fund almost in its entirety by cutting $158 million in funding. This is the most significant threat historic preservation has faced in over four decades. The elimination of the funding will devastate historic preservation efforts and programs across the country, from rural historic districts to urban redevelopment projects.

Read NPPN’s HPF Advocacy Alert HERE for more information and actions you can take.

New Bipartisan Historic Tax Credit Bills Introduced

The House passed the Republican Budget Reconciliation Tax bill on May 22nd that focused on extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions among other priorities of the Republican leadership. With an outpouring of advocacy, there were no rollbacks of Historic Tax Credits, but also no improvements.

All eyes are now on the Senate. Historically, a Republican controlled Senate has acted more favorably for community development incentives than a Republican controlled House. Advocates are contacting Republican Senate offices, closely monitoring the reconciliation bill efforts, and working with Senate champions on the Finance Committee to continue voicing support for enhancing the Historic Tax Credit. The Senate is expected to vote on their version of the bill sometime before July 4th and a House and Senate negotiated bill is expected by mid-August, before the debt ceiling limit expires.

In April, A new version of the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act (HTC-GO) was introduced by Sen. Cassidy (R-LA) and Sen. Warner (D-VA) in the Senate (S. 1459) and Representatives LaHood (R-IL) and Suozzzi (D-NY) in the House (H.R. 2941). New provisions include returning to a one-year delivery of the HTC as well as a boost from 20% to 30% in the credit and the ability to transfer credits for smaller and rural projects.

Recent Senate advocacy efforts have resulted in thousands of messages and dialogue with key tax staff, urging the inclusion of HTC improvements. Senator Cassidy has voiced to Historic Tax Credit advocates that it is a high priority of his to include HTC improvements in the Senate version of the tax bill. However, there needs to be a groundswell of support among Republican Colleagues to “greenlight” inclusion of these provisions in the tax bill.

June advocacy will make or break HTC improvements in this bill. As the Senate strives to pass a reconciliation bill before the July 4th Recess, HTC advocates have about 1 month to reach out to Senators to urge improvements to the HTC in the Senate tax bill. Outreach to Republican Senators from the following states is critical: AK, AL, AZ, AR, FL, ID, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MS, MO, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, WV, WI, WY. Please reach out to your networks and activate advocates to contact their Senators.

Republican Senators on the Senate Finance Committee are presently writing the Senate version of the tax bill. Outreach to these offices is very important.

If you would like assistance with tax staff contacts, feel free to reach out to Mike Phillips at National Trust Community Investment Corporation ([email protected]) and/or sign up for the latest information on the HTC Advocacy Campaign HERE.

It’s not too late to join the effort to support HTC-GO and take action. You can find more details on HTC-GO HERE.

Featured Event

NPPN Fall Convening 2025

Date: September 18-19, 2025

Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Planning is underway for NPPN’s Fall Convening. We will be meeting in conjunction with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s PastForward Conference in Milwaukee. We’ll be providing details about the schedule soon.

Grants

News

Partner Events

A roundup of preservation events happening across the country. Want to have your event listed? Email the details to the Director. Priority will be given to national, state, and regional events.