ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 13, Number 65 September 17, 2004 In This Issue: Please send messages to Senate Commerce Committee: DO NOT TAKE MONEY FROM THE E-RATE! The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a markup for Wednesday, September 22, 2004 on a Universal Service Telecommunications bill filed by Senator Gordon Smith (S. 1380). The Smith bill does not affect E-Rate. However, at the last Commerce Committee mark-up, Senator Trent Lott introduced an amendment to the Smith bill to hold states harmless on high cost funding changes. The mechanism of the Lott amendment would have resulted in taking funding from the E-rate program - perhaps as much as $120 million to $150 million -- to cover high-cost hold-harmless provisions. Any hold-harmless provision from Senator Lott to shift funding would take funding from the E-Rate even though the underlying Smith proposal does not affect E-rate. It is important for library and school supporters to communicate how important the E-rate program is in providing affordable Internet and telecommunications access to rural, hard-to-reach and low-income communities. Please contact the Senate Commerce Committee and tell them how much libraries need the E-Rate! Members of the Senate commerce Committee are: John McCain - Arizona Ted Stevens - Alaska Conrad Burns - Montana Trent Lott - Mississippi Kay Bailey Hutchison - Texas Olympia Snowe - Maine Sam Brownback - Kansas Gordon Smith - Oregon Peter G. Fitzgerald - Illinois John Ensign - Nevada George Allen - Virginia John Sununu - New Hampshire Ernest F. Hollings - South Carolina Daniel K. Inouye - Hawaii John D. Rockefeller IV - West Virginia John F. Kerry - Massachussetts John B. Breaux - Louisiana Byron L. Dorgan - North Dakota Ron Wyden - Oregon Barbara Boxer - California Bill Nelson - Florida Maria Cantwell - Washington Frank Lautenberg - New Jersey You may send an e-mail message through ALA's legislative action center by visiting: . The Capitol Switchboard number is: (202) 224-3121. ****** 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. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Carol Ashworth, Camille Bowman, Don Essex, Joshua Farrelman, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Carrie Lowe, Kathy Mitchell, Carrie Russell. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.