================================================================= ALAWON Volume 5, Number 88 ISSN 1069-7799 December 20, 1996 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (129 lines) KEY COMMITTEES LISTS (UNOFFICIAL) FOR 105TH CONGRESS AVAILABLE ON ALA-WO WEB SITE ALA REPLY TO COMMON CARRIER BUREAU SEEKS COMMENT ON UNIVERSAL SERVICE RECOMMENDED DECISION CC DOCKET 96-45 FILED WITH THE FCC ON DECEMBER 19, 1996 AVAILABLE ON OITP WEB SITE _________________________________________________________________ KEY COMMITTEES LISTS (UNOFFICIAL) FOR 105TH CONGRESS AVAILABLE ON ALA-WO WEB SITE Although final appointments to Congressional committees will not be official until Congress is sworn in on January 7, 1997, information on preliminary assignments is becoming available. Visit the ALA Washington Office page "Key Committees Lists (Unofficial)for the 105th Congress" at for unofficial lists of congressional committee members in areas or particular relevance to library issues. These lists are provided based on announced appointments and anticipated assignments determined by committee and party seniority. A summary of these committees follows. Appropriations Committees recommend funding levels for all federal programs. Reps. Robert Livingston (R-LA) and David Obey (D-WI) remain as chair and ranking minority members of the House committee. Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) replaces retiring Senator Mark Hatfield (R-OR), while Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) continues as ranking minority member of the Senate committee. Budget Committees determine the wedges of the budget pie for large segments of programs such as education and job training (while Appropriations Committees divide the wedges into bites for individual programs). Rep. John Kasich (R-OH) continues as House committee chair; Rep. John Spratt (D-SC) replaces retiring Rep. Martin Sabo (D-MN) as ranking minority member. Senate Budget Committee members have not yet been announced. Commerce Committee jurisdictions include telecommunications policy. House chairman Thomas Bliley (R-VA) and ranking minority member John Dingell (D-MI) continue. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) replaces the defeated Sen. Larry Pressler (R-SC) as Senate committee chair; Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-SC) continues as ranking minority member. The House Economic & Educational Opportunities Committee and the Senate Labor & Human Resources Committee jurisdictions include education, youth, library, museum, and arts and humanities programs. In the House, Rep. William Goodling (R-PA) continues as chair, as does Rep. William Clay (D-MO) as ranking minority member. It is expected that Rep. Frank Riggs (R-CA) will succeed Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-CA) as chair of the Early Childhood, Youth and Families Subcommittee. Under Cunningham, the subcommittee took leadership on the LSTA legislation in the 104th Congress. In the Senate, Senator James Jeffords (R-VT) replaces retiring Sen. Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS) as chair. He expects to handle education and library issues at the full committee level. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) continues as ranking minority member. Government information policy is under the jurisdiction of the House Government Reform & Oversight Committee, House Oversight Committee, Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, and the Senate Rules and Administration Committee. Of these, House Government Reform and Senate Governmental Affairs also have jurisdiction over postal issues. Copyright and intellectual property issues come under the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committees. Full committee leadership has not changed; however, there will be new leadership, as yet unannounced, of the House subcommittee handling copyright, as both Reps. Moorhead (R-CA) and Schroeder (D-CO) retired. In the Senate, copyright is handled at the full committee level. Subcommittee rosters have not yet been released. Changes made in any of these appointments will be provided as soon as Congress makes them official. _________________________________________________________________ ALA REPLY TO COMMON CARRIER BUREAU SEEKS COMMENT ON UNIVERSAL SERVICE RECOMMENDED DECISION CC DOCKET 96-45 FILED WITH THE FCC ON DECEMBER 19, 1996 AVAILABLE ON OITP WEB SITE New on the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy web site is the ALA reply to Common Carrier Bureau Seeks Comment on Universal Service Recommended Decision CC Docket 96-45 filed with the FCC on December 19, 1996 located at . A summary from the filing is as follows: ALA commends the hard work of the Joint Board and their staffs in producing the Recommended Decision. ALA believes that by allowing discounts to apply to any available telecommunications service, this recommended decision provides maximum flexibility for libraries to choose those telecommunications services that best serve the needs of their communities. ALA, as will be elaborated on further below, also believes that the 20%-90% range of discounts can provide for significant and meaningful discounts for libraries if indexed to appropriate measures of economic need and, in high cost areas, if applied to reasonably comparable prices for similar services. Furthermore, ALA appreciates the Joint Board's efforts to minimize the administrative burdens placed on libraries by allowing self-certification of eligibility for the discounts. ALA also concurs with the Joint Board's recommendation that efficient and effective discount support mechanisms, including appointment of a neutral fund administrator, be implemented so that discounted services can be deployed by the 1997-1998 school year. _________________________________________________________________ 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 ALA Washington Office Newsline. Visit our Web site at . 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: Carol C. Henderson Andrew Magpantay Deirdre Herman All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================