Nation IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : House to Abolish Historian’s Office

The new Republican leadership in the House of Representatives has decided to abolish the Office of the Historian, a five-person staff founded in 1983, with a budget of $337,000. House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s office confirmed that it was being eliminated, saying the office was only meant to be temporary, for the bicentennial of Congress, when Gingrich (R-Ga.) supported it in 1982. Transition team staffers said, however, that the House will continue to pay for a full-time chaplain who opens each session with a prayer and tends to members’ spiritual needs.