****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 59 October 10, 1994 In this issue: (295 lines) PRESIDENT SIGNS LIBRARY FUNDING BILL NETWORKING APPLICATIONS BILLS DIE IN CONFERENCE PORTIONS OF SENATE TELECOM. BILL ANALYZED *************************************************************************** PRESIDENT SIGNS LIBRARY FUNDING BILL The Senate on September 28 agreed to the conference report on H.R. 4606, the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Bill for FY 1995, sending the bill to the White House. The President signed the bill on September 30, and it is now P.L. 103-333. For the Library Services and Construction Act, state allotments under titles I and III were distributed to most states on October 1, the first day of the 1995 fiscal year. This is a much faster distribution than in previous years, reflecting strenuous efforts on the part of the state library agencies and the U.S. Department of Education to comply with the provisions of the Cash Management Improvement Act. Other library programs funded in the bill are on a different timetable either because the law allows funds to carry over beyond the 1995 fiscal year (as in the case of the construction/renovation projects under LSCA II); or because the law requires a competitive grant application process directly from the federal level (as in the case of LSCA VI library literacy projects or HEA II- B fellowships and institutes). See the article below on the notice inviting applications for several such programs. Higher Education Act title II-B research and demonstration projects are normally competitive grants or contracts. However, for FY95, the Conference report on the bill (H.Rept. 103-733) specified how the entire $6.5 million appropriated was to be directed. The Secretary of Education is "to use $5,000,000 to fund additional projects that competed in 1994 for demonstration of on-line and dial-in access to a statewide, multitype bibliographic data base through a statewide fiber optic network." Thus, no new applications will be solicited. The Department of Education made one such grant of about $2.5 million in FY94, and is expected to make a few new awards from the existing pool of applicants. The remaining $1.5 million is "for a demonstration project making Federal information and other data bases available for public use by connecting a multistate consortium of public and private colleges and universities to a public library and an historic library." This funding was originally in the Senate-passed version of H.R. 4606 where S. Rept. 103-318 indicated that "Portland State University, in conjunction with the Oregon Historical Society, would be especially suited to operate" such a program. The Senate had passed a total of $8,270,000 for HEA II-B research and demonstrations, with $3,994,000 for "demonstration projects involving the digitization of research library collections and the development of related organizational tools for access to these digital resources." However, House- Senate conferees cut the Senate total to $6.5 million, deleted the digitization projects, and switched $2.5 million of that funding to bring the statewide fiber optic network project funding to $5 million. LIBRARY PROGRAMS - APPLICATIONS INVITED The Department of Education has published a notice inviting applications for new awards for FY95 and announcing application deadlines for five discretionary grant programs for libraries. The September 29 _Federal Register_, pp. 49746-49, lists the following: Library Literacy Program (LSCA VI) -- applications are available 10/14/94; and due by 12/02/94. Contact Barbara Humes, 202-219-1315. Library Services to Indian Tribes and Hawaiian Natives Program (LSCA IV) Basic Grants -- applications are available 10/14/94; and due by 12/02/94. Library Services to Indian Tribes and Hawaiian Natives Program (LSCA IV) Special Grants -- applications are available 03/06/95; and due by 05/08/95. Contact Beth Fine, 202-219-1315. Library Education and Human Resource Development (HEA II-B), Fellowships -- applications are available 10/27/94; and due from library schools and other eligible fellowship providers by 12/02/94. Library Education and Human Resources Development (HEA II-B), Institutes -- applications are available 10/27/94; and due by 12/02/94. Contact Louise Sutherland, 202-219-1315. For the HEA II-B fellowships and institutes, eligible applicants are institutions of higher education, library organizations, and library agencies. Applications must meet one or more of several absolute priorities: recruit, educate, train, retrain and retain minorities in library and information sciences; educate, train or retrain library personnel in areas of library specialization where there are currently shortages, such as school media, children's services, young adult services, science reference, and cataloging; educate, train or retrain library personnel in new techniques of information acquisition, transfer, and communication technology. For fellowships, an additional absolute priority is to increase excellence in library education by encouraging study in library and information science and related fields at the doctoral level. For institutes, an additional absolute priority is to educate, train or retrain library personnel to serve the information needs of the elderly, the illiterate, the disadvantaged, or residents of rural America. Under institutes, an invitational priority is to contribute to achievement of the National Education Goals. *************************************************************************** NETWORKING APPLICATIONS BILLS DIE IN CONFERENCE A casualty of the 103rd Congress was H.R. 820, the National Competitiveness Act. The measure was of great interest to the library community because it included provisions authorizing applications of networking technology in education, health care, libraries, and government information by the National Science Foundation and several other federal agencies. These provisions, first proposed by then-Senator Albert Gore, Jr., were sometimes known as the Gore-II bills. Designed to follow up on the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991, they were championed in the House by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA). The House passed H.R. 1757 in July 1993, and in March 1994 the Senate passed S. 4 (with title VI incorporating similar provisions). The bills were then combined as H.R. 820. Compromise language for the networking applications provisions was worked out long ago by staffs of the House and Senate science subcommittees, although conferees themselves did not meet until late September. However, the bill died in conference committee, due to disagreements over trade provisions and regulatory flexibility. *************************************************************************** PORTIONS OF SENATE TELECOM. BILL ANALYZED While the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee's telecommunications bill (S. 1822, the Communications Act of 1994) was declared dead by committee chairman Ernest Hollings (D-SC) in late September, the report (S. Rept. 103-367) on the bill was issued so close to the time of the bill's demise, that we had not published our analysis of certain sections of great interest to the library community. It seems useful to summarize the public access and public rights-of-way provisions as actually approved by the Senate committee. Telecommunications regulatory reform bills will undoubtedly emerge in the new Congress next year, and will be influenced by this year's battles. Although numerous factors played a role in killing S. 1822, phone industry opposition was a key factor, as well as the sharply partisan atmosphere of end-of-session, election year politics. TELECOM. COMPETITION. Under certain conditions, local phone companies would be allowed to enter long-distance markets. Local phone service would be opened up to competition from cable, long distance, or utilities. Under the same requirements for unbundling of local networks, telephone companies would be allowed entry into cable TV service, and cable companies into telephone service. Under certain conditions, local phone companies could provide electronic publishing and manufacture equipment. UNIVERSAL SERVICE. S. 1822 would classify all competitors as common carriers, and require all to contribute to a universal service fund. This would bring all carriers under FCC regulation, although the FCC could reduce or remove regulation when competition develops or when it is in the public interest. Special provisions are designed to protect universal service in rural areas, and to meet the needs of persons with disabilities. The bill would preempt most state and local barriers to competition, and states objected to a late amendment that would preempt their regulation of telecommunications services within states. The FCC would define universal service, based on the recommendations from a Federal-State Joint Board, as well as from the public and Congress: The Committee intends that the Joint Board and FCC will periodically update the list of telecommunications and information services included in the definition of universal service in order to ensure that all Americans share in the benefits of the information superhighway. To ensure that the definition of universal service expands over time, the subsection requires the FCC to include, at a minimum, the telecommunications and information services that are subscribed to by a substantial majority...of residential customers. Any service included in this definition shall be one that enhances participation in the academic, economic, medical, or democratic process of the country. PUBLIC RIGHTS-OF-WAY. In its universal service provisions, the bill includes two sections relating to protection of public networking capability. In section 103, Public Rights-of-Way, the bill requires that within two years of enactment, the FCC must promulgate regulations to require that telecommunications networks reserve up to 5 percent of capacity for public uses at incremental cost based rates (no more than the directly attributable cost of the service). Entities eligible to make use of this capacity include public and nonprofit libraries, educational institutions at all levels, public telecommunications entities, and certain nonprofit organizations. The actual amount of capacity, which must be of the best quality available, may depend on factors such as the type of technology used. The reservation of capacity requirement may not apply for networks that have clearly sufficient open architecture, capacity, and nondiscriminatory access, but the incremental cost based rate requirement would still apply. Such reserved capacity must be used by eligible entities for provision of educational, informational, cultural, civic, or charitable services to the public, and may not be sold or resold. PUBLIC ACCESS. Section 104, Public Access, requires that within two years of enactment certain public institutional telecommunications users must be provided with universal service, and separate definitions of universal service may apply to them. These entities include public or nonprofit libraries, elementary or secondary schools, health care facilities, museums, and public broadcast stations. Higher education institutions are not listed as eligible, although the FCC may identify other classes of eligible entities that contribute significantly to the public's quality of life. The FCC is also to include the amount of support payments reasonably necessary to provide universal service to such users under the bill's universal service fund to which all telecommunications carriers must contribute. For these public institutional telecommunications users, the FCC is also to establish rules to enhance the availability of advanced telecommunications and information services, to require preferential rates, to ensure appropriate functional requirements and/or performance standards (including interoperability), and to define the circumstances under which a carrier may be required to connect such users. S. Rept. 103-367 indicates that the intent of the public rights-of-way section is "to ensure that entities that disseminate noncommercial educational, informational, cultural, civic, and charitable services to the public have access to telecommunications networks." The purpose of the public access section is "to ensure that these entities may be able to obtain, at preferential rates, advanced services and functionalities for all their communications needs." Further elaborating on the public access section, the report states: The ability of schools, libraries, health care facilities, museums, public broadcast stations, and other public institutional telecommunications users to obtain access to advanced communications services will be critical to ensuring that access to these advanced services is available to all Americans. The public access provisions of S. 1822 as reported open new worlds of knowledge, learning, and education to all Americans--rich and poor, rural and urban. Browsing a Presidential library, reviewing the collections of the Smithsonian, or finding new information on the treatment of an illness, all will be available to Americans in their homes or via schools, libraries, and museums. This universal access assures that no one is barred from the power of the information age. The separate definition of universal service applicable only to eligible public facilities is explained in the report with an example: For example, the FCC could determine that the telecommunications and information services that constitute universal service for public and nonprofit classrooms and libraries shall include dedicated data links and the ability to obtain access to educational materials, research information, statistics, information on Government services, and reports developed by Federal, State, and local governments and informational services which can be carried over the Internet. Where reasonably necessary, the cost of providing universal service to eligible public facilities is to be paid for out of the Universal Service Fund. OBSCENITY PROVISIONS. The Senate committee, in its report, noted that it had "been troubled by an increasing number of published reports of inappropriate uses of telecommunications technologies to transmit pornography, engage children in inappropriate adult contact, terrorize computer network users through 'electronic stalking,' and seize personal information." However, the solution proposed by Senator J. James Exon (D-NE), is very troubling. Approved by the committee, it would extend the current provisions on indecency and harassing phone calls to all telecommunications services. The provision raises major First Amendment concerns because it would greatly expand prohibited conduct and seems to expand liability to communications carriers and information service providers. The bill also includes provisions suggested by Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA) to increase protections against indecency on leased access and public access channels on cable systems. *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** 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: Lynne E. Bradley (leb@alawash.org). 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. 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