****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 5, Number 7 March 7, 1996 In this issue: (132 lines) APPROPRIATIONS UPDATE BURDENSOME REQUIREMENTS ON NONPROFIT GRANTEES PROPOSED ACTION NEEDED: CALL REPRESENTATIVES AND URGE NO VOTE ON ISTOOK AMENDMENTS ***************************************************************** APPROPRIATIONS UPDATE Today, the House of Representatives began debate on H.R. 3019, an Omnibus Appropriations Bill, which includes funding for appropriations bills not yet completed for FY96, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education; Commerce, Justice, State; Interior; and VA-HUD. The bill does not include funding for the District of Columbia. On March 6, the Senate Appropriations Committee reported out S. 1594, the Senate version of the Omnibus Appropriations Bill, which includes the same appropriations bills not yet completed for FY96 and does include funding for the District of Columbia. Both House and Senate bills also include funding for the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia along with disaster assistance to various parts of the United States. Both bills include controversial abortion language, and cuts in education programs like Goals 2000. Each bill attempts to return some funding for key Administration priorities, but provides the funding through dependence on offsets requiring passage of separate legislation. That legislation could require either new spending cuts or new tax provisions. The current continuing resolution has a deadline of March 15, and the legislative funding choices embedded in each bill seem problematic at best. Debate today in the House by minority members conjured up Presidential veto and the specter of a government shut-down again. Specific funding line items will be reported here as soon as they become available. ***************************************************************** BURDENSOME REQUIREMENTS ON NONPROFIT GRANTEES PROPOSED Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK) plans to offer two amendments to H.R. 3019, an Omnibus Appropriations Bill, that are similar to his efforts in 1995 to restrict lobbying and political advocacy by federal grantees. The first amendment, the Disclosure of Lobbying Activities by Federal Grantees, creates new burdensome reporting requirements and sets up new bureaucracy for nonprofit federal grantees. The amendment only covers grants, and specifically excludes contracts and other forms of subsidies. This means that powerful special interests would have no Istook limitations on advocacy, but charities would. The new disclosure requirements would require information about the lobbying activities of charities to be posted on the Internet, while no such information about contractors would be posted. This amendment is not needed. There already are prohibitions on federal grants being used for lobbying activities. They have been in place for many years, and none of the government investigative or monitoring offices have found any pattern of violations. The second Istook amendment is already part of the bill as section 507, and creates a new burdensome paperwork requirement on nonprofit organizations. Grantees would be required to disclose, on any document describing a program or project funded by the federal government, the dollar and percentage of federal and nongovernmental funds for the project or program. State and local governments would also be required to comply with this requirement. The text of section 507 follows: SEC. 507. When issuing statements, press releases, requests for proposals, bid solicitations and other documents describing projects or programs funded in whole or in part with Federal money, all grantees receiving Federal funds, including but not limited to State and local governments and recipients of Federal research grants, shall clearly state (1) the percentage of the total costs of the program or project which will be financed with Federal money, (2) the dollar amount of Federal funds for the project or program, and (3) percentage and dollar amount of the total costs of the project or program that will be financed by nongovernmental sources. ACTION NEEDED: Immediately call your Representative and urge her or him to oppose the new Istook amendment and section 507. We need to let Congress know that these types of amendments are unacceptable. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is an irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004. Internet: alawash@alawash.org; Phone: 202-628-8410; Fax: 202-628-8419. Contributing to this issue: Mary R. Costabile, Anne H. Heanue and Claudette W. Tennant; 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 listserv 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. To get a particular file, issue the command "send filename filetype" to the listserv. Do not include the quotes in your commands. All materials in the newsletter subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. For other reprinting or redistribution, address requests to the ALA Washington Office (alawash@alawash.org). ****End File****************End File*****************End File**** *****************************************************************