Senate votes 99-1 to condemn National History Standards, establishing legislative override of professional curriculum as a political weapon

The U.S. Senate voted 99-1 on January 18, 1995 to condemn the National History Standards, a federally funded K-12 history curriculum framework developed by the National Center for History in the Schools at UCLA. Conservative commentator Lynne Cheney, who had funded the standards' development as NEH chair, led the public attack after the draft was released in 1994, arguing it overemphasized slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, and McCarthyism while underemphasizing Western achievements. Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA) sponsored the resolution. The lopsided vote — only one senator, Patty Murray (D-WA), voted against the resolution — demonstrated that congressional condemnation of curriculum content developed by professional historians was politically costless.