****Begin File******************Begin File*******************Begin File**** *************************************************************************** ISSN 1069-7799 ALAWON ALA Washington Office Newsline An electronic publication of the American Library Association Washington Office Volume 3, Number 8 February 17, 1994 In this issue: (249 lines) HIGHLIGHTS OF PRESIDENT CLINTON'S FY95 BUDGET NII-RELATED ITEMS IN ADMINISTRATION BUDGET AVAILABILITY OF BUDGET DOCUMENTS ESEA REAUTHORIZATION PASSES COMMITTEE HEARINGS ON GOVERNMENT PRINTING *************************************************************************** HIGHLIGHTS OF PRESIDENT CLINTON'S FY95 BUDGET The previous ALAWON issue included information about Department of Education library programs in the Clinton Administration's FY95 budget request; this issue highlights other areas of interest to the library community. PROGRAM (figures in thousands) FY 1994 FY 1995 APPROPRIATION CLINTON REQUEST Chapter 2 school block grant $ 394,696 $ * GPO Superintendent of Documents 29,082 33,900 Head Start 3,326,285 4,026,285 Library of Congress 331,864 358,000** NCLIS 904 904 National Agricultural Library 18,255 19,720 National Archives 195,482 200,898 (Natl. Historical Pubs. & Records Com.) (5,250) (4,000) Natl. Ctr. for Educ. Statistics 77,850 103,200 Natl. Endowment for the Arts 170,229 170,229 Natl. Endowment for the Humanities 177,491 177,491 National Library of Medicine 119,981 135,330 (incl. Medical Lib. Asst. Act) * No funds are requested for the current block grant, which includes school library resources as an eligible use of funds. Administration proposes (as part of ESEA reauthorization) to replace Ch. 2 with $752 million in a new professional development program. ** Includes authority to use $25.3 million in receipts. *************************************************************************** NII-RELATED ITEMS IN ADMINISTRATION BUDGET President Clinton's fiscal year 1995 budget request repeats at least three times Vice President Gore's commitment, and his challenge to the private sector, to connect every school, library, hospital and clinic to the national information infrastructure by the year 2000. NII-related items in the budget include an increase from the current $26 million to $100 million for connecting schools, libraries, and other nonprofit entities to existing computer networks under the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Networking Pilot and Demonstration Projects. Another Commerce Department agency, the National Institute for Standards and Technology, has a budget request of $451 million, more than doubling its Advanced Technology Program. Included would be $38 million for information infrastructure projects. The National Science Foundation's high performance computing and communications activities would increase 23 percent, from $267 million to $329 million. The budget document notes that the "HPCC program also includes a component called Information Infrastructure Technologies and Application (IITA) which applies HPCC technologies in a broad range of applications with large societal impacts, including health care, education, libraries, and manufacturing." This may be the first budget in which the Executive Branch mentions strengthening the role of the depository libraries. The reference appears in a section highlighting budget proposals and other changes to implement the National Performance Review. A subsection on Electronic Information Availability includes the following paragraphs: The increasing power of information technology is reducing reliance on traditional printing technology in favor of computer-aided print-on-demand techniques to produce Government information in paper form. Based on the NPR recommendation, the Administration is seeking increased flexibility for agencies in meeting their printing needs while strengthening the role of the Federal Depository Libraries in dissemination of Government information in paper and electronic form. A major challenge, however, is to develop methods to effectively manage the ever growing and increasingly diverse sources of Government information. To this end, OMB is sponsoring the development of an electronic Government Information Locator Service (GILS)--a virtual card catalogue that will indicate the availability of Government information regardless of its form. An initial GILS capacity should be available in 1994. Ultimately, the GILS can serve as more than just a pointer to Government information, and will have the capability to link users directly to the underlying data bases. For the National Technical Information Service, a one-time $18 million pool of investment capital is proposed to help support the electronic dissemination of data generated by the Federal Government. NTIS officials said at the ALA Midwinter Meeting that $6 million of this would be aimed at getting information to depository libraries. According to the detailed budget appendix document, NTIS will use the $18 million "to implement the American Technology Preeminence Act, improving NTIS information management and dissemination capabilities and facilitating public access through depository libraries." The $18 million would remain available in the NTIS revolving fund until expended. *************************************************************************** AVAILABILITY OF BUDGET DOCUMENTS This year marks the first time the Budget of the United States Government is available in electronic format. Various electronic versions are as follows: * The CD-ROM version is available from the Department of Commerce for $30.00. The Appendix that covers the detailed budget submissions for each agency does not appear on the Budget CD-ROM. The Budget CD-ROM will not be distributed to federal depository libraries. * The complete Budget including the Appendix will appear on the February 1994 CD-ROM issue of the Department of Commerce's National Economic, Social, and Environmental Data Bank (NESE-DB). The NESE-DB CD-ROM will be available February 20 to 960 federal depository libraries for free public access. * There will be no charge to obtain the Budget via the Department of Commerce's Economic Bulletin Board (EBB). The EBB can be accessed using a personal computer and modem (N81 settings). For 2400 BPS, dial 1-202-482-3870, and for 9600 BPS, dial 1-202-482- 2167. * Free access to the Budget can also be obtained using the Internet by issuing one of the following commands: telnet ebb.stat-usa or gopher gopher.esa.doc.gov. For additional information, write to Office of Business Analysis; U.S. Department of Commerce; Room H4885; Washington, DC 20230. Send electronic mail comments to tac@esa.doc.gov. *************************************************************************** ESEA REAUTHORIZATION PASSES COMMITTEE HR 6, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization, has been approved by the House Education and Labor Committee. Action on the bill is expected on the House floor on February 23. The bill includes HR 1151, the Elementary and Secondary School Library Media Act, as Title IIB, and also authorizes a specific amount to be put towards technology in school libraries. A complete copy of HR 6 and an accompanying report should be available by Friday, February 18. ACTION NEEDED: Urge House members, who are on recess in their home districts, to vote in favor of HR 6 when it comes to the House floor, and to resist any amendments to the legislation which attempt to strip out parts of the bill. *************************************************************************** HEARINGS ON GOVERNMENT PRINTING The Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, chaired by Senator Wendell Ford (D-Ky.), is holding a series of hearings on various proposals to change government printing practices. Two hearings, on February 3 and 10, have been completed. Senator Ford announced a third hearing on March 3 about emerging and state of the art technology in ways to print and distribute information on the "information highway." Testimony will also be heard about compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Alice Rivlin, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Public Printer Michael DiMario testified on February 3. Rivlin defended the Administration's original proposal sent to Congress to implement the recommendations of the National Performance Review to authorize Executive Branch agencies to procure their own printing and be responsible for disseminating information. Rivlin said "OMB concluded that there would be annual savings of approximately $10 million per year in Fiscal Years 1997, 1998, and 1999, based on an assumption that agencies would procure half of those printing jobs elsewhere during those years." Rivlin cited no studies to document these anticipated savings, and in answer to a question from Senator Ford, admitted the numbers were "rough." In his 34-page statement, DiMario maintained that the removal of Executive Branch printing from the Government Printing Office would cost the government millions of dollars every year and lead to significant duplication and waste in government printing. He pointed out that repeated studies have shown that it is more economical for the government to procure printing from the private sector through GPO than to produce it in agency plants, with most agreeing that agency-produced work costs twice as much as GPO-procured printing. "Thus, under NPR, the cost of Government printing could double. In FY 1993, GPO procured $530 million in printing for agencies. Under the NPR, that cost could climb as high as $1.1 billion." On February 10, testimony was heard from Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) and three panels: 1) Katherine Mawdsley, University of California, Davis, for the American Library Association; and Steve Metalitz, Information Industry Association; 2) Bill Boarman, Communications Workers of America; and George Lord, Joint Bargaining Council, GPO; and 3) William Gindlesperger, ABC Advisors, Inc.; Benjamin Cooper, Printing Industries of America; and Norman Horne, Harrington Business Forms, Inc. Summing up a 17-page statement, Mawdsley said that the Government Printing Office has done a commendable job of ensuring that federal information is made available for the free use of the American public. Mawdsley testified about the inefficiencies of decentralization; the increased costs for libraries, the public and the government; and concerns that fewer publications will be disseminated. She said that "Congress would do a disservice to the American people if GPO's Depository Library Program is crippled by decentralization." Mawdsley concluded that ALA believes this is a historic opportunity to strengthen the Depository Library Program and offered specific recommendations for doing so. Testimony from the hearings were submitted in electronic format to the Senate FTP site. They can be accessed via the Internet by entering ftp.senate.gov; login as anonymous; and use your Internet electronic mail address as the password. Final copies of the hearing record will be available electronically from the Government Printing Office's bulletin board. The GPO bulletin board can be accessed using a pprsonal computer and modem (N81 settings). For up to 9600 BPS, dial 1-202-512-1387. Once connected, select "Congress" from the menu. *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is an irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office, 110 Maryland Avenue, N.E., Washington, DC 20002-5675. Internet: alawash@alawash.org; Phone: 202-547-4440; Fax: 202-547-7363. Editor: Carol C. Henderson (cch@alawash.org). 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 and other documents 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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