================================================================= ALAWON Volume 5, Number 50 ISSN 1069-7799 August 13, 1996 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (228 lines) APPROPRIATIONS UPDATE LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATIONS BILL ADVANCES--H.R. 3754 ALA LETTER CITED IN CONGRESSIONAL DEBATE LABOR, HEALTH, HUMAN SERVICES EDUCATION--H.R. 3755 INTERIOR APPROPRIATIONS ACTION IN SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE-- H.R. 3662 TREASURY, POSTAL SERVICE & GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS FY97 _________________________________________________________________ EDITOR'S NOTE: While Congress is on recess until after Labor Day, ALAWON will use this opportunity to publish several lengthy reports on key legislative topics. We will indicate in the subject line of each numbered ALAWON issue the length and subject covered. We hope that this will prove helpful to ALAWON readers. _________________________________________________________________ APPROPRIATIONS UPDATE LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATIONS BILL ADVANCES--H.R. 3754 The Senate is expected to act on the conference report H.R. 3754, the legislative branch appropriations bill for FY 97, in September when Congress returns from its summer recess. Before going out on recess, the House passed the conference report on H.R. 3754 on August 1st (see H. Rept. 104-733 and the August 1 _Congressional Record_, pp. H9450-2]. The bill provides $2.187 billion to pay for the operations of the House, Senate and legislative branch agencies, including the Government Printing Office and the Library of Congress. The Senate passed their version of the bill on July 30 (S. Rept. 104-323) [See July 29 _Congressional Record_, pp. S9061-69, and July 30 _CR_ , pp. S S9115-18], while the House passed their version of H.R. 3754 on July 10 (H.Rept. 104-657) [See July 10 _CR_, pp. H7171-7206]. The biggest debate in the House-Senate conference on the bill involved the Senate's intention to use the Congressional Research Service to develop a more modern legislative information system. Government Printing Office. The Senate accepted the spending levels approved by the House, $29,077,000 for the Office of Superintendent of Documents. The largest share of this sum would go for the operations of the Federal Depository Library Program. This is a reduction of $1,230,000 from FY 1996 and $1,750,000 less than the Public Printer requested for next year. Congress denied the $500,000 requested for technology grants to help depositories transition to a more electronic program. Although the Senate accepted the House reduction of $1,200,000 (anticipated savings by converting most serial sets to CD-ROM), Senate report language recognized that "the development of a CD-ROM of the congressional serial set will require that an electronic data base of reports and documents be developed. The utilization of standardized electronic formats will increase the efficiency and utility of this process. Congressional offices should supply electronic input to GPO for this purpose." The Senate also accepted the House reduction of $1,050,000 (anticipated savings by converting the Bound Congressional Record to CD-ROM.) Library of Congress. The Senate passed a total of $331,758,000 for the Library of Congress in FY 97. This total includes $62,641,000 for the Congressional Research Service; $44,964,000 for books for the blind and physically handicapped; and a total of $33,402,000 for the copyright office (including the authority to spend $22,269,000 in receipts.) The Senate included $928,000 for the L.C. American Folklife Center, the same level as provided in FY 1996. Additionally, when the Senate passed their version of H.R. 3754 it reauthorized the American Folklife Center for two years. In passing its version of H.R. 3754, the House instructed the Library of Congress to prepare a plan to transfer the Folklife Center to the Smithsonian Institution. In conference, the House accepted the Senate's approach. In report language, the Senate addressed the appointment and responsibilities of a deputy librarian: The committee has reviewed the findings and recommendations of the recent audits of the Library, and believes that the single most important action to be taken would be the appointment of a deputy librarian fully empowered to be the chief executive officer of the Library. The management tasks identified in the audit reports are daunting, and must be given full-time attention. The extraordinary demands already placed upon the Librarian in any number of external arenas and in developing a vision for the Library's transition into a digital future make it impossible for him to deal with the day-to-day administration of the Library's operations. Those responsibilities must be delegated to the Deputy Librarian and the committee looks forward to that being done as soon as the deputy position is filled. In floor debate (July 29 _CR_, p. S9068), Senator Connie Mack (R-FL) said that the Library is in the process of selecting a deputy librarian to fill the position as chief operating officer. _________________________________________________________________ ALA LETTER CITED IN CONGRESSIONAL DEBATE During House debate on H.R. 3754 Representative Vic Fazio (D-CA) moved to send the bill back to the Appropriations Committee with instructions to report the bill back to the House minus the $150,000 necessary for the Republican majority to implement their new Internet policy which "denies Democrats our own independently accessed Web site." The move was defeated 230 to 191. One of the issues generating the most discussion during the debate was the Internet policy adopted on May 23 by the House Oversight Committee, chaired by Representative Bill Thomas (R-CA). Fazio said that the policy "prevents access to Democratic pages, Web pages, unless a user goes to the Republican page first...In fact, when we made this policy, the chairman made it clear...that if a committee Chair unilaterally did not want a minority Web page at all, he or she could simply refuse to have a Web page for the majority. This is, pure and simple, a restriction on access to information. The effect of this policy is that users of the Internet and the World Wide Web, our constituents, cannot get the information they want." During debate on the bill, Fazio introduced a July 9 letter from ALA Washington Office Executive Director Carol C. Henderson who pointed out that access to congressional information should not be a partisan issue. She said that ALA is concerned about the House's new Internet policy and the effect it would have on an informed electorate: "This policy would concern us no matter which party was in the majority during any given Congress." _________________________________________________________________ LABOR, HEALTH, HUMAN SERVICES EDUCATION--H.R. 3755 After two days of debate and a number of amendments, H.R. 3755, the FY97 Labor, Health, Human Services, Education Appropriations bill, passed the House on July 12, 1996. Although an attempt was made to add $250 million to Goals 2000 funding, the amendment did not pass. The bill includes $65.7 billion in discretionary spending, $7.8 billion under the President's request. There were no changes in library program funding levels in the bill. Action then moved to the Senate, where Secretary of Education Richard Riley testified before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education on July 16. At the grassroots level, library supporters urged Senate Appropriations Subcommittee members to maintain at least FY96 funding for all library programs. Senators were also reminded that LSCA III is crucial to linking libraries electronically to the information superhighway, and that deep cuts in LSCA III interlibrary cooperation and resource sharing should be restored. Use of ESEA VI (Chapter 2) funds for school library resources was also emphasized and senators were reminded about the usefulness of this program and the need for substantial funding. Senate action was postponed until September. _________________________________________________________________ INTERIOR APPROPRIATIONS ACTION IN SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE--H.R. 3662 On July 12, the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee approved H.R. 3662, the FY97 Interior Appropriations bill. Overall funding for the bill was set at $12.7 billion, $372 million more than the House level and $114 million more than FY96, but $270 million less than the President's request. Contrary to the House language which acknowledges Congress' intent to eliminate the Endowments, the Senate subcommittee did not include any such language. However, the National Endowment for the Humanities was cut to $100 million, down $10 million below FY96 levels. Like so many appropriations bills this year, the Interior Appropriations bill is so tight that moving any funds from other accounts could bring those accounts below FY96 levels. _________________________________________________________________ TREASURY, POSTAL SERVICE & GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS FY97 On July 17, the House passed H.R. 3756, the Treasury, Postal and General Government Appropriations bill for FY97. Included in the bill are appropriations for the National Archives and Records Administration and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. For FY97 the House would fund the National Archives at $195,109,000. The President's request for FY97 for the National Archives was $196,964,000. The Committee report,(H. Rept. 104-660, p. 77), indicates that $4,500,000 from funds appropriated in FY96 "for cataloging, archiving and digitizing activities" have been rescinded "because the National Archives and Records Administration has not developed a plan as to how these funds will be spent." The report states that the Committee is "pleased that current Archivist brings broad management experience to NARA, and believes his greatest challenge will be to marry the role of the historian with the role of the manager. The Committee urges the NARA to change its deep rooted culture of collecting and retaining everything and focus on how to better manage that which it collects and retains." The report goes on to describe the Archives as "being ill-equipped to deal with its current substantial holdings of electronic records and the reality of a future explosion of such records." The Committee "is determined that all agencies wishing to pursue expanded use of technology must first prepare a solid blueprint for design, development, acquisition, and implementation." The report then compliments the Archivist for not putting together a hasty inadequate plan in order to retain the $4,500,000. The National Historical Publications and Records Commission grants program would suffer a drop in funding level in the House bill from $5,000,000 in FY96 to $4,000,000 in FY97, the same as the President's request. _________________________________________________________________ ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message "subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname]" to . ALAWON archives gopher.ala.org; select Washington Office Newsline. Web page HTTP://www.ala.org/alawashington.html. ALA Washington Office 202.628.8410 (V) 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F) Washington, DC 20004-1701 Lynne E. Bradley, Editor Contributors: All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================