****Begin File*************Begin File**************Begin File**** ***************************************************************** ISSN 1069-7799 ALAWON ALA Washington Office Newsline An electronic publication of the American Library Association Washington Office Volume 4, Number 106 December 22, 1995 In this issue: (205 lines) CONGRESS, THE BUDGET AND FUNDING ISSUES... HOLIDAY STATUS REPORT -- ACTION NEEDED NO CONGRESSIONAL ACTION ON LSTA AUTHORIZATION BEFORE HOLIDAY RECESS S. 652, TELECOMMUNICATIONS REFORM LEGISLATION, MAY BE EMERGING FROM CONFERENCE COMMITTEE ***************************************************************** CONGRESS, THE BUDGET AND FUNDING ISSUES...HOLIDAY STATUS REPORT On December 18, parts of the federal government shut down again because the Continuing Resolution had run out, Congress and the President had not reached agreement on budget negotiations, and no new continuing resolution had been passed. Various scenarios are possible, depending on whether Congress takes action or adjourns. The House of Representatives is debating about adjournment vs. recess. If a budget agreement is reached between the President and Congress before the Christmas recess, adjournment may last until well into January, with both Houses returning for the President's State of the Union address on January 23 or 24. It is possible that there will be no votes until late in February. It is anticipated that the President's budget for FY97 may be presented in skeletal form in February, with details submitted later in March. Veterans of past budget battles recall that in 1987, Congress passed a continuing resolution for the rest of the fiscal year, which ended a budget crisis. The FY96 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill, H.R. 2127, remains stalled in the Senate, with no indication of when or if there will be movement to a vote. Pressure is building in the Senate to move H.R. 2127, because the House passed version zeroes out a low income heating assistance program (LIHEAP), and senators from Northern and Western states have taken the floor to tell of constituent hardships. The Senate bill could fund this program. A year long continuing resolution could have the effect of limiting programs to the lower of the levels reached in House or Senate for programs where appropriations bills are not completed. Under the most recent Continuing Resolution, programs not funded by either House or Senate were continued at 75 percent of current funding until the resolution expired on December 15. The effect for library programs could be severe if a year-long resolution continued funding in the same manner. In any event, funding levels for library programs would be set at House levels: FY95 FY96 House FY96 Senate Approp. Passed Committee Passed LSCA I -Public Library Svcs. $ 83,227 $ 83,227 $ 83,227 LSCA II- Library Construction 17,792 -0- 16,369 LSCA III-Interlib. Cooperation 23,700 18,000 18,000 LSCA VI--Library Literacy 8,026 -0- 7,384 HEA II-B Library Ed & Training 4,916 -0- 4,523 HEA II-B Research & Demos. 6,500 -0- 2,000 NCLIS 901 450 829 ACTION NEEDED: Library supporters should contact all senators and stress the importance of passage of the FY96 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill, H.R. 2127, and the need to press for the Senate's higher numbers for library programs. At this writing, it is still possible that the appropriations bill could be passed in the Senate, although chance of a conference occurring before recess is not likely. ***************************************************************** NO CONGRESSIONAL ACTION ON LSTA AUTHORIZATION BEFORE HOLIDAY RECESS It appears that, although House and Senate staff have made progress in working on comparisons of the House bill, H.R. 1617, and the Senate bill S. 143, conferees on the bills have yet to meet on this legislation that contains different versions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). As library supporters use the holiday season to exchange greetings with representatives and senators, they should remind them of the importance to the library community of passage of the legislation. These recess periods, when officials are in home states or congressional districts, are an important opportunity to communicate about the importance of LSTA and other library issues. ***************************************************************** S. 652, TELECOMMUNICATIONS REFORM LEGISLATION, MAY BE EMERGING FROM CONFERENCE COMMITTEE It is unclear whether there is even a shaky agreement within the telecommunications conference committee that has been negotiating on S. 652, the Telecommunications Competition and Deregulation Act of 1995. It was initially reported that House and Senate conferees had agreed "in principle" on telecommunications reform legislation. Almost immediately, other observers suggested that Yogi Berra's comment applies: "It ain't over til it's over." Even as some congressional staffers confirmed that there was general agreement among conferees, there were reports that some Republicans remain skeptical and could not yet affirm this potential agreement. While supportive comments have been made by many participants in the negotiations, including the Clinton administration, nothing can be assured until the final conference language is released and agreed to by the conferees. Amidst the highly charged political atmosphere, this is becoming increasingly difficult, even though this telecommunications reform legislation had been developed in a relatively bi-partisan manner. Congressional staff will likely work through the Holiday recess to draft the final language based on the conference committee negotiations. If and when the conferees agree on the final version, the bill will then go back to the floors of both houses of Congress for approval. This will probably not happen until Congress returns from recess at the end of January. The most recent comments from the White House indicate that President Clinton would not veto the bill, as it presently stands. One speculation is that Vice President Gore's recent positive comments about a telecommunications agreement (in principle) may be one of the contributing factors that perturbed some Republicans. The ALA Washington Office has heard that the Snowe-Rockefeller-Kerrey-Exon provision, which mandates a type of affordable telecommunications rate for K-12 schools and libraries, may have been kept in the final agreements. This would be a "win" for grassroots library advocates who have been working hard to see this provision prevail. Again, this is a CAUTIOUS optimism; nothing is completely settled in this environment and library advocates should continue to communicate their support for SRKE. At the same time, library advocates also remain gravely concerned about the "family online empowerment" amendment which would make mere "display" of "indecent" material over online services a criminal offense -- a provision that could seriously threaten libraries as providers and publishers of online information. ALA has argued that no such new "cyberporn" legislation is necessary; existing law on obscenity should be sufficient to address these issues. If Congress must pass such new legislation, ALA and other library advocates argued, that it should not be based on the overly-broad "indecency" criteria and that there should be no criminal penalties. Again, opportunities to communicate the problems with this provision to conferees and other representatives and senators should continue to be used until the bill is finally passed. Like other issues, such as appropriations, presently before Congress, the situation is "fluid". Further information as it becomes available. This is a rapidly changing story. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is an irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004. Internet: alawash@alawash.org; Phone: 202-628-8410; Fax: 202-628-8419. Contributing to this issue: Mary R. Costabile; Editor: Lynne E. Bradley (leb@alawash.org). ALAWON is available free of charge and is available only in electronic form. To subscribe, send the message "subscribe ala- wo [your name]" to listserv@uicvm (Bitnet) or listserv@uicvm.uic.edu (Internet). Back issues and other documents are available from the listserv the list server. To find out what's available, send the message "send ala-wo filelist" to the listserv. The ALA-WO filelist contains the list of files with the exact filename and filetype. To get a particular file, issue the command "send filename filetype" to the listserv. Do not include the quotes in your commands. All materials in the newsletter subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. For other reprinting or redistribution, address requests to the ALA Washington Office (alawash@alawash.org). ****End File****************End File*****************End File**** *****************************************************************