ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 14, Number 67
July 15, 2005

In This Issue: 

SENATE APPROPRIATORS APPROVE LIBRARY FUNDING LEVELS

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee passed the FY 2006 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, which has jurisdiction over several library programs, yesterday by a vote of 27-0.   
The full Appropriations Committee approved the Subcommittee's recommendation of an overall funding level of $290,129,000 for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).  This is $40,489,000 above the allocation provided by the House of Representatives.  However, this increase is likely to be used to fund Congressionally-directed projects.  

Within the IMLS total, the Subcommittee recommended that the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) receive $211,825,000, an increase of $5,874,000 over last year, but $9,500,000 below President Bush's budget request and $825,000 below the House of Representatives funding level. Within that total is $165 million for Grants to State Library Agencies, $23 million for Librarians for the 21st Century program, $13 million for National Leadership Grants for libraries, and $3.675 million for Improving Library Service to Native Americans.

For school libraries, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved $19,683,264 for the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program, the same level as fiscal year 2005, the President's request, and the House of Representatives.

Funding for the Department of Education is $56.709 billion, an increase of $132.2 million over the FY05 level (.25% increase) and $490.3 million over the President's budget request.  Funding for No Child Left Behind programs would be decreased by $750 million, for total funding of $23.771 billion.

Similar to the President's Budget request, many education programs are level funded, some are cut and 13 programs are eliminated entirely, including Even Start.

However, some of the programs that the President proposed for elimination in his FY 06 budget, like Adult Education, were restored to their FY05 level of $585.4 million.

ALA, along with the 37 Senators, had requested that the Senate Appropriations Committees fund the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) at President Bush's request of $221.33 million and $100 million for the Improving Literary Through School Libraries program - the level of funding necessary to initiate formula grants to all states.  

Given the extremely tight budget environment, ALA is pleased with the almost $6 million increase proposed for LSTA.  However, we will continue to work with the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to increase funding for America's school libraries. 


Visit ALA's website for more information and talking points on these critical programs:
http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/washfunding/funding.htm

Use ALA's Washington Office Legislative Action Center at http://capwiz.com/ala/home/ to identify and fax your Members of Congress in both the House and the Senate.  

You can also call your Member of Congress directly using the U.S. Capitol switchboard at:  (202) 224-3121.


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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; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff.  Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; 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.