****Begin File******************Begin File*******************Begin File**** *************************************************************************** ALAWON ALA Washington Office Newsline An electronic publication of the American Library Association Washington Office Volume 2, Number 12 April 8, 1993 In this issue: (186 lines) LIBRARY LEGISLATIVE DAY BRIEFING *************************************************************************** LIBRARY LEGISLATIVE DAY BRIEFING This issue of ALAWON has been written especially for those planning to come to Library Legislative Day on April 20 to visit congressional offices. So many of you asked for briefing materials in advance of your visits that we are providing an advance rundown of some pending issues. Please share this with your state group coming to Washington, DC. This short briefing sheet could also be used by those who can't make it to the big event here, but wish to contact legislators in state and district offices while they are home on recess through next week. After we analyze the details of the full, account-level Clinton budget released earlier today, we'll post another portion of this advance briefing. CLINTON ECONOMIC PLAN/CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET President Clinton achieved a significant victory on March 18 when the House passed the essential elements of his economic plan. The vote, on H.Con.Res. 64, the Congressional budget resolution for FY94, was followed by House passage of the FY93 stimulus and investment supplemental appropriations bill, HR 1335. The Senate also has passed the budget resolution and is currently debating the President's stimulus package. Usually the budget resolution is passed after receipt of the President's budget. The much-delayed full-scale fiscal year 1994 budget request of the Clinton Administration was finally released on April 8. Rumors are that it will contain some good news and some bad news on federal library programs. The next issue of ALAWON will provide further details. POSTAL REVENUE FORGONE Nonprofit mailers pay the attributable costs that the Postal Service incurs for processing and delivering the mail. Congress currently provides an appropriation to the Postal Service to cover the "overhead" costs assigned to nonprofit mail. It is that appropriation that is disappearing at an alarming rate and that lack of funding that will cause nonprofit postal rates to soar. The Administration budget calls for an appropriation of $91.4 million, while the Postal Service request for funding is $612.5 million. The Administration request would fund free mail for the blind and overseas voting materials at $63 million, leaving $28 million for everyone else. According to figures obtained from USPS by the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, with no appropriations, the 4th class Library Rate would incur a 4 percent increase, while mailing of 2nd class classroom materials would rise 24 percent. Third-class nonprofit mailings category would rise by an average of 35 percent. ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT INFORMATION The Government Printing Office Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act of 1993, S. 564 (S.Rept. 103-27) passed the Senate on March 22. Its companion, HR 1328 (H.Rept. 103-51), was reported out of committee on April 1 and is due for floor action soon. The bills would establish in the Government Printing Office a means of enhancing electronic public access to a wide range of federal electronic information. The bills provide for online access to the _Congressional Record_ and the _Federal Register_, other appropriate publications distributed by the Superintendent of Documents, and the establishment of an electronic directory of federal public information stored electronically and an electronic storage facility. Depository libraries would access the directory and system, including the electronic storage facility, at no charge--other users would be charged approximately the incremental cost of dissemination of the information. ACTION NEEDED: Urge your Representatives to vote for H.R. 1328 when it comes to the House floor for action soon after Congress returns to Washington. NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES It is time for NEA/NEH reauthorization and the last time this happened, the reauthorization was tacked on to an appropriations bill which appeared to be the only way to get anything on the subject of NEA through Congress. The budget for NEH includes some very important programs from which libraries benefit, like preservation, the American Newspaper Project, grants for access tools to collections, and humanities programs in libraries. LC/GPO APPROPRIATIONS The House Appropriations Subcommittees on the Legislative Branch budget have already held hearings on the Library of Congress and the Government Printing Office. ALA was represented at the House hearing by Kate Mawdsley, Associate University Librarian for Public Services, University of California at Davis, who testified in support of the LC budget request for a 9 percent increase from FY93. GPO's budget request was also supported by Mawdsley, who called the committee's attention to a shortfall in FY93 funds which is having an impact on depository libraries' collections of government documents. ESEA REAUTHORIZATION Hearings are underway on reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The Elementary and Secondary School Library Media Act (S. 266, HR 1151) has been introduced. This legislation will help needy elementary and secondary school library media centers upgrade their library collections as well as provide grants for technology enhancement in the library media center and the classroom as well as grants to encourage teacher/library media specialist collaboration on curriculum. More sponsors are needed for these Senate and House bills designed to be incorporated in the reauthorization package. NREN, TECHNOLOGY ISSUES President Clinton and Vice President Gore announced a new technology initiative on February 22. It includes a push to further implement and fund the high-performance computing and communications program (including the National Research and Education Network) established by the High- Performance Computing Act of 1991; creation of a task force on information infrastructure; creation of an information infrastructure technology program; funding for networking pilot projects through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) at the Commerce Department (matching grants to states, schools, libraries for hooking into computer networks like the Internet); and promoting dissemination of federal information via the Internet/NREN. Congressional committees have held a number of oversight and exploratory hearings this year on the national communications and information infrastructure and on the NREN and NREN application bills. In the House, Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) is expected to introduce an NREN applications bill the week of April 19. The Boucher bill will include a new applications area for government information, as recommended by ALA and others. NREN applications bills pending in the Senate include S. 626, to establish a system of state-based electronic libraries, introduced on March 22 by Senator J. Robert Kerrey (D-NE). The provisions of S. 626 may be considered in conjunction with S. 4, the National Competitiveness Act, an omnibus competitiveness and technology bill. Introduced by Senator Ernest Hollings (D-SC), S. 4 includes the NREN applications provisions as introduced by then-Senator Gore last year. HEARING SCHEDULED ON PUBLIC LIBRARIES--APRIL 21 The Joint Committee on the Library will hold a hearing focusing on the state of the nation's public libraries on April 21, the day following Library Legislative Day, at 10:30 in Room 1300 of the Longworth House Office Building. Legislative Day participants are invited to attend. Over a dozen witnesses from around the country will appear. *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** ALAWON is an irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office, 110 Maryland Avenue, N.E., Washington, DC 20002-5675. Editor and List Owner: Fred King. Phone: 202-547-4440; Fax: 202-547-7363; Bitnet: NU_ALAWASH@CUA; Internet: NU_ALAWASH@CUA.EDU All or part of ALAWON may be redistributed, with appropriate credits. ALAWON is available free of charge and is available only in electronic form. To subscribe, send the message "subscribe ala-wo [your name]" to listserv@uicvm (Bitnet) or listserv@uicvm.uic.edu (internet). Back issues of ALAWON are available from the list server. To find out what's available, send the message "send ala-wo filelist" to the listserv. The ALA-WO filelist contains the list of files with the exact filename and filetype. 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