ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 13, Number 46 July 9, 2004 In This Issue: [1] House Appropriators Announces Library Funding Levels [2] Amendment to Bar Funding for Section 215 of USA PATRIOT Killed [1] House Appropriators Announce Library Funding Levels The House Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Subcommittee bill, which has jurisdiction over several library programs, recommended funding levels for fiscal year 2005 yesterday. The Subcommittee's recommendation included an overall funding level of $261,743,000 for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), an increase of $32,098,000 for programs and administration over last year. The total requested is nearly level to the President's budget request and the FY 2004 appropriation for IMLS, which included over $30 million in congressionally-directed grants. While the Committee has not specified this yet, LSTA could get as much as $220 million at this level. This would represent a significant increase over FY 2004. For the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program, the Subcommittee recommended that the program be flat funded at $19.8 million, the same level as FY 2004. ALA, along with the 89 Members of Congress, had requested that the House and Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriation Subcommittees to fund the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) at the authorized level of $232 million and $100 million for the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries Program - the level of funding necessary to initiate formula grants to all states. Many education programs are level funded in the subcommittee mark and twenty-four programs are eliminated entirely, including the Star Schools and Community Technology Centers programs. However, some of the programs that the President proposed for elimination in his FY 05 budget were restored like the Even Start family literacy program, which was funded at $246.9 million. In addition, the President's Striving Readers Initiative was funded at $100 million. According to the President's budget, the Striving Reader's Initiative would make competitive grants available to States and school districts to develop, implement, and evaluate effective reading interventions for middle or high school students reading significantly below grade level The Subcommittee's recommendations next head to a full Appropriation's Committee meeting on Wednesday, July 14th. [2] Amendment to Bar Funding for Section 215 of USA PATRIOT Killed The Sanders-Paul-Conyers-Otter-Nadler Freedom to Read Amendment was defeated yesterday, after an initial victory -- 219 to 201-- with Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) voting present. The defeat -- a 210 to 210 tie vote (with Lofgren continuing to vote present) -- came after House leadership held the vote open 23 minutes past the scheduled ending time. The time allowed the leadership to lobby Republicans to change their votes. Rep. C.L. Butch Otter (R-ID), a conservative and a co-sponsor of the amendment is quoted as telling reporters after the vote: "You win some, and some get stolen." If your Representative supported the amendment, please call and thank her or him. contains a link to a graphic of the House vote. Republicans voting YES on the amendment: Bartlett (MD), Castle (DE), Duncan (TN), Ehlers (MI), Flake (AZ), Johnson (IL), Kirk (IL), Leach (IA), Moran (KS), Ney (OH), Otter (ID), Paul (TX), Petri (WI), Porter (NV), Renzi (AZ), Simpson (ID), Weldon (PA), Young (AK) Democrats voting NO: Edwards (TX), Harman (CA), Smith (WA), Stenholm (TX) Among the co-sponsors of HR 1157 were 4 who voted NO on the amendment: Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), Donald Manzullo (R-IL), Jeff Miller (R-FL), Zach Wamp (R-FL). Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), also a co-sponsor of HR 1157, voted Present. Seven of the Republicans voting YES on the amendment are not yet co-sponsors of HR 1157: Michael Castle (DE), Tim Johnson (IL), Mark Kirk (IL), Bob Ney (OH), Thomas Petri (WI), John Porter (NV), Rick Renzi (AZ). They should be encouraged by their constituents to get on HR 1157. President Bush threatened late Wednesday to veto the spending bill if the provision was included, and the Justice Department on Thursday sent a letter, read on the floor several times by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), that says "as recently as this past winter and spring, a member of a terrorist group closely affiliated with al-Qaida" had used Internet services at a public library. The letter mentioned no specifics -- and does not specify under what authority (such as a FISA Court order, or a grand jury subpoena) the Department obtained the information. [Go to and scroll down to Hot Topics to see a copy of the letter.] According to Congress Daily AM, Reps. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Zach Wamp (R-TN), and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO), credited the letter for their vote switch from "yes" to "no." Reps. Doug Bereuter (R-NE), Michael Bilirakis (R-FL), Rob Bishop (R-UT), Barbara R. Cubin (R-WY), Tom Davis (R-VA), Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), Katherine Harris R-FL), Jack Kingston (R-GA), and Nick Smith (R-MI), also switched their votes to defeat the amendment. Five Democrats switched from "no" to "yes,": Robert Bud Cramer of Alabama, Rodney Alexander of Louisiana, and Brad Sherman of California, Gary Ackerman of New York, and James Langevin of Rhode Island. The following is compiled from various press reports this morning: By a 210 to 210 tie vote that GOP leaders prolonged for 23 tumultuous minutes while they corralled dissident members, the House rejected a bipartisan amendment to the Commerce-State-Justice spending bill that would have scaled back a provision of the USA PATRIOT Act, making it harder for the government to compel libraries or bookstores to provide records to law enforcement agencies.. White House officials, citing the nearly three-year-old law's importance as an anti-terrorism tool, warned that an attempt to weaken it would be vetoed. But the victory came only after GOP tactics infuriated Democrats and a number of Republicans. The vote, scheduled to last 15 minutes, dragged on for 38 minutes despite outraged shouts of "democracy now" and a unified chant of "shame, shame, shame" from Democrats across the aisle. A cluster of Democrats made clucking noises and called out "chicken" when Republicans switched their votes to defeat the amendment. In a reference to the Medicare prescription drug vote last fall, amendment co-sponsor Rep. Bernard Sanders (I-VT) yelled, "What are you going to do, hold the vote open for three hours?" ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. 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