ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 13, Number 81 October 15, 2004 In This Issue: CONGRESS ADJOURNS UNTIL AFTER THE ELECTION OR UNTIL THEY CAN AGREE ON INTELLIGENCE REFORM LEGISLATION After working through the weekend to pass a corporate tax bill and the Homeland Security and Military Construction fiscal year 2005 spending bills, Congress adjourned Monday until after the elections. However, Congressional leaders left open the slim possibility of Congress returning prior to November 2nd to pass intelligence reform legislation. Congressional leaders would like to complete the intelligence conference report (H.R. 10/S.2845) by Oct. 22, in order to reconvene both chambers for a final vote before the election. If conferees cannot adopt a conference report by then, it probably will be wrapped up during the anticipated post-election session, with the House and Senate scheduled to reconvene the week of Nov. 15. Current plans call for the House to reconvene at 2 p.m. on Nov. 16. Congress passed a Continuing Resolution, also known as a "CR," on September 29th. The CR continues funding for federal departments and agencies at current levels until November 20, 2004. Congress has only passed 4 of the 13 annual spending bills that are supposed to be enacted by October 1st. The Labor-HHS-Education spending bill, which has jurisdiction over several library programs, has yet to be considered by the full Senate and will likely be combined with other outstanding spending bills into an "omnibus" appropriations package that will be considered after the November elections. The House of Representatives passed their bill on September 9th. The Senate Appropriations Committee passed their bill on September 15th. ALA is urging its members to contact their Senators in support of the funding levels approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee for LSTA and the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program. ALA is also urging for increased funding for the Title V education program, the Government Printing Office, the National Agriculture Library, and many other library related programs. ACTION NEEDED: Contact your Members of Congress immediately and ask them to support $223.56 million for Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) programs at the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and $22.842 million for the Improving Literary Through School Libraries program. Visit ALA's website for more information and talking points on these critical programs: You may call your Senators TOLL-FREE at 1-800-839-5276. Or identify and send your Member of Congress a letter through the legislative action center at: ****** Remember: You Can Call Any MEMBER OF CONGRESS Toll-Free: 1-800-839-5276 ****** 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, Don Essex, Joshua Farrelman, Erin Haggerty, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Carrie Lowe, Kathy Mitchell, Carrie Russell. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.