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                                                   ISSN 1069-7799
                             ALAWON
                 ALA Washington Office Newsline
               An electronic publication of the 
         American Library Association Washington Office
                                
                       Volume 5, Number 4
                       February 12, 1996
                                
In this issue: (102 lines)
     LSTA TENTATIVE CONFERENCE AGREEMENT BEING DEVELOPED    
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      LSTA TENTATIVE CONFERENCE AGREEMENT BEING DEVELOPED

During the week of February 5, several meetings of the staff of
House and Senate conferees on H.R. 1617, the CAREERS Act,
produced a tentative staff agreement on major points of a House-Senate compromise on the Library Services and Technology Act
proposal.  This tentative compromise is subject to review and
approval by the House-Senate conferees themselves, and many
details are not yet known or not yet fully developed.  

The major points of staff agreement on this tentative compromise
include:

 - Administration of LSTA by an Institute of Museum and Library   
      Services;
 - An authorized level totaling $150 million;
 - A reduced set aside for federal level administration;
 - A very small set aside for national leadership purposes in     
      library science;
 - One funding stream allocated to states (rather than half for   
      technology and half for special services);
 - Purposes of state based funds to include technology and        
      special services, including services for children in        
      poverty, but without formulas (details not yet known);
 - Minimum allotment amount to states still an open issue;
 - One advisory body (how this will affect the existing Museum    
      Board and NCLIS is not yet known).

It is not yet clear when further details will be known.  Future
House-Senate staff meetings will now move on to other non-library
issues in the House and Senate passed versions of H.R. 1617,
which consolidates job training, vocational education, adult
education, and literacy programs.  The library program was the
first item to be discussed; other issues are considered more
controversial.  Meanwhile, some clean-up and detail work on the
library provisions will be addressed by staff.  It is likely to
be at least a month before work is complete.  Conferees
themselves will have to meet to ratify the staff agreement,
resolve any particularly difficult issues, and issue a conference
report.  

At this point, there is nothing official on paper; and there may
be no official announcements until the conference report itself
is available.  Once all differences are resolved and the report
is issued, the full House and Senate must vote to approve the
conference version, after which it would be sent to the President
for signature.

What seems clear is that the bipartisan House and Senate
conference committee leadership is committed to enactment of a
viable library program whose outlines are consistent with the
recommendations of the library community; that the library
program, on its effective date, will be administered by an
independent Institute of Museum and Library Services; and that
the conferees are expecting to complete work on H.R. 1617 in
fairly short order.  It is also clear that some conference
participants will insist on changes in some of the provisions in
the library community recommendations.  The Washington Office
will provide details as they are made available.  Thanks to
library constituents for your calls and letters in support of the
library group conference recommendations.
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ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is an irregular publication of the
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Contributing to this issue: Carol C. Henderson; Editor: Lynne E.
Bradley (leb@alawash.org).

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