The U. S. Department of State established the AFCP in 2001 at the request of Congress in Conference Report 106-1005 accompanying H.R.

4942 (October 26, 2000).

The Senate report on this bill noted that the preservation of cultural heritage “offers an opportunity to show a different

credit:

How's Your Community Doing?
Check Out it's
Community Vital Signs

American face to other countries, one that is non-commercial, non-political, and non-military.” The AFCP Grants Program supports the preservation of archaeological sites, historic buildings and monuments, museum collections, and forms of traditional cultural expression, such as indigenous languages and crafts.

Appropriate project activities may include:
1. Anastylosis (reassembling a site from its original parts); 2. Conservation (addressing damage or deterioration to an object or site); 3. Consolidation (connecting or reconnecting elements of an object or site); 4. Documentation (recording in analog or digital format the condition and salient features of an object, site, or tradition) 5. Inventory (listing of objects, sites, or traditions by location, feature, age, or other unifying characteristic or state); 6. Preventive Conservation (addressing conditions that threaten or damage a site, object, collection, or tradition); 7. Restoration (replacing missing elements to recreate the original appearance of an object or site, usually appropriate only with fine arts, decorative arts, and historic buildings); 8. Stabilization (reducing the physical disturbance of an object or site).