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                                                   ISSN 1069-7799
                             ALAWON
                 ALA Washington Office Newsline
               An electronic publication of the 
         American Library Association Washington Office
                                
                      Volume 4, Number 101
                        December 6, 1995
                                
In this issue: (90 lines)
     HOUSE CONFEREES VOTE ROAD BLOCK ON
          INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY

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  HOUSE CONFEREES VOTE ROAD BLOCK ON INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY

Today, December 6, House conferees on S. 652, the
telecommunications reform bill, approved in a 20-13 vote the
compromise proposal offered by Rep. Rick White (R-WA), and
described in yesterday's ALAWON issue (Dec. 5, 1995).  Following
that, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) offered an amendment to
substitute the vague "indecency" language for the more specific
"harmful to minors" language in the White proposal.  The
Goodlatte amendment was approved by House conferees on a 17-16
vote.  

The result of the Goodlatte amendment was to once again greatly
expand the scope of liability for libraries, schools, online
service providers, and others who make Internet transmissions or
make them available to minors.  The uncertainty arising if
today's result were to be enacted would chill the ability of
libraries and education institutions to connect students and
other users to a wide range of electronic resources.  ALA and
other groups worked to urge some  unexpected "yes" voters among
Democrats, such as Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and Rep. Pat
Schroeder (D-CO), to urge conferees to reconsider the vote on the
Goodlatte amenement.  

No reconsideration has yet occurred, but Rep. White and his staff
are working closely with interested parties in industry and the
public sector  to reverse or narrow the broad liability
unexpectedly imposed by Rep. Goodlatte's amendment.  It is
unclear at this time whether those efforts, which will center on
defining what indecency means, will succed in the current
political climate .  

Regardless of the outcome among House conferees, this issue must
then be negotiated with Senate sponsors of provisions such as the
Exon amendment that are just as restrictive as Rep. Hyde's
original proposal.  ALA at this juncture continues to work with
other interested parties and congressional offices to improve a
serious problem, but it is uncertain whether librarians and
educators will be able to support the ultimate compromise on this
issue    ALA believes that further federal intervention into
content restriction, regardless of the medium, is unnnecessary,
and that current laws are sufficient to alleviate the conerns now
being expressed in Congress.

The situation remains extremely fluid.  Stay tuned for further
developments or action alerts.
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Contributing to this issue: Carol C. Henderson; Editor: Lynne E.
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