================================================================= ALAWON Volume 6, Number 5 ISSN 1069-7799 January 24, 1997 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (259 lines) LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: THE BEGINNING OF THE 105TH CONGRESS HOUSE ADOPTS NEW DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS FOR WITNESSES HOUSE WANTS COMMITTEE DOCUMENTS ON THE INTERNET EDUCATION COMMITTEE NAME CHANGED AGAIN ALA FILES REPLY COMMENTS ON UNIVERSAL SERVICE PUBLIC NOTICE ALA JOINS LAWSUIT CHALLENGING U.S. ARCHIVIST _________________________________________________________________ LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: THE BEGINNING OF THE 105TH CONGRESS The beginning of the 105th Congress has been marked by avowals of bi-partisan agreement, but shadowed by partisan wrangling over the issue and timing of the House Ethics Committee investigation into Rep. Newt Gingrich. The House elected Rep. Gingrich Speaker but a week later voted to reprimand and fine him for his ethics violation. The majority leaders of both House and Senate were quoted as eagerly awaiting the President's budget, since they said all were agreed on the need for a balanced budget by the year 2002. The same subject areas that brought the budget discussions to a standstill in early 1996, Medicaid, Medicare, social security and education are certain to be points of discussion again. Legislation to create a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution may well be first on the House and Senate agendas, with some newscasters predicting speedy passage but other citing prospective difficulty in the House. The President will present his budget for FY98 after his State of the Union address on February 4, probably on February 6. Specific information on library program proposed funding should be available by the end of that week. The overall schedule for Budget Resolution and Appropriations bills to be completed does not appear to be on the same fast track predicted at the outset of last year. However, there will probably be an attempt to rescind or take back many of the large education increases approved at the end of last session. Particularly vulnerable would be certain education dollars that are forward funded. _________________________________________________________________ HOUSE ADOPTS NEW DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS FOR WITNESSES As the 105th Congress convened on January 7, the House adopted by a vote of 226 to 202, a so-called "Truth in Testimony" provision as part of the Rules of the House of Representatives. Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-NY), sponsor of the amendment and chair of the House Rules Committee said, "Nongovernmental witnesses at committee hearings will be required to submit with their written testimony in advance their academic and professional credentials, and a disclosure by source and amount of federal grants and contracts over the last 3 years." (See January 7 Congressional Record, p. H10.) The new rule reads as follows: Sec. 10. Information Required of Public Witnesses(4) "Each committee shall, to the greatest extent practicable, require witnesses who appear before it to submit in advance written statements of proposed testimony and to limit their initial oral presentations to the committee to brief summaries thereof. In the case of a witness appearing in a nongovernmental capacity, a written statement of proposed testimony shall include a curriculum vitae and a disclosure of the amount and source (by agency and program) of any Federal grant (or subgrant thereof) or contract (or subcontract thereof) received during the current fiscal year or either of the two previous fiscal years by the witness or by an entity represented by the witness." During debate on the Rules, Rep. David Skaggs (D-CO) objected to the new information required of public witnesses, saying, "We are creating a new and absurd barrier to public participation in House hearings by saying that any nongovernmental witness testifying in committee will have to file, as a precondition, a full report of all contracts, subcontracts, grants, subgrants received by that individual, his organization, or anyone he is representing. What in the world are we trying to do here? I think erect a barrier a la the old Istook amendment to discourage and intimidate citizens from around the country in coming to talk to us about the public's business." (The reference to the "old Istook amendment" harks back to a series of controversial amendments offered last year by Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK) that would have erected barriers to political advocacy by nonprofit organizations.) ALA is working with legal counsel to determine what this Rules requirement would mean when ALA members testify before House committees on behalf of the Association. _________________________________________________________________ HOUSE WANTS COMMITTEE DOCUMENTS ON THE INTERNET Another House Rules change adopted on January 7 provides that "each committee shall, to the maximum extent feasible, make its publications available in electronic form." Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-NY) explained,"by publications, we intend this to include written committee materials that are otherwise made available to the public. That information ought to appear on the Internet." During debate on the Rules, Rep. Vernon Ehlers strongly supported this provision. He inserted a statement of clarification in the Congressional Record (p. H22) stating,"I am committed to making all House documents available over the Internet as rapidly as possible. There are still many technical problems involved, as well as political issues to be dealt with...In particular, I believe it absolutely essential that every document available in hard copy also be made available on the Internet at the same time or earlier than the hard copy is available. The Congress owes the public at least that much and preferably more." _________________________________________________________________ EDUCATION COMMITTEE NAME CHANGED AGAIN The name of the House Committee responsible for many key library and education programs has been changed again. For many years it was known as the Education and Labor Committee. At the beginning of the 104th Congress two years ago the name was changed to the Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities. At the beginning of the 105th Congress the House voted to change the name once again. The new name: Committee on Education and the Work Force. _________________________________________________________________ ALA JOINS LAWSUIT CHALLENGING U.S. ARCHIVIST On December 23 ALA joined Public Citizen and others to file a complaint against John Carlin in his official capacity as Archivist of the United States in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The action challenges the Archivist's promulgation of a "General Records Schedule" authorizing all federal agencies, at their discretion, to destroy the only electronic version of federal agency records stored on agency electronic mail and word processing systems provided the agency has printed a hard copy of the electronic record on paper of microform. Other plaintiffs are the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the National Security Archive, journalist Scott Armstrong and researcher Eddie Becker. In addition to the National Archives, several other agencies are defendants: the Executive Office of the President, the Office of Administration, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative. The complaint states that the Archivist has "improperly ignored the unique value of electronic records, has abdicated his statutory responsibility to appraise the historical value of such electronic records, and has unlawfully attempted to use General Records Schedule to authorize the destruction of records concerning individual agency programs without the public notice and comment required by law." The complaint asks the court to declare General Records Schedule 20 null and void and to prevent the defendant agencies from destroying electronic records created, received or stored on electronic mail or word processing systems pursuant to General Records Schedule 20. This lawsuit is a follow-up to Armstrong v. Executive Office of the President (Civil Action No. 89-142) in which ALA was also a co-plaintiff. This suit, often known as the PROFS case, began in 1989 when a temporary injunction was sought to prohibit the destruction of the National Security Council's electronic mail. Various court orders in the PROFS case led to the issuance of General Records Schedule 20 on the disposition of electronic records. (General Records Schedule 20 was published in the August 28, 1995 Federal Register, pp. 44643-50.) This records schedule provides disposal authorization for certain electronic records and specified hard-copy (paper) or microform records that are integrally related to the electronic records. Prior to adoption of this schedule, the historical and archival community stressed that the National Archives was abdicating its role in appraising records with these regulations which gave give enormous authority to agency heads. General Records Schedule 20 raises issues of both what constitutes a federal record and the parameters of the Archivist's authority. At particular issue in this new case is the Archivist's authorization of a proposed records disposition schedule from the Office of the United States Trade Representative and the Office of Science and Technology Policy which rely on the revised General Records Schedule 20 and which call for the destruction of electronic record that the plaintiffs' view as having substantive information on the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, and operations of the agencies. _________________________________________________________________ ALA FILES REPLY COMMENTS ON UNIVERSAL SERVICE PUBLIC NOTICE On January 10 ALA filed 11 pages of reply comments with the Federal Communications Commission in response to the November 18 public notice on the FCC-Joint Board Recommendations. (The full text of the filing can be viewed at http://www/ala.org/oitp/.) In the filing ALA recommended a two step process for determining the amount of discount for eligible institutions an equalization of prices between high cost and low cost areas, where necessary, and a determination of an appropriate discount based on an indicator of economic condition for the eligible institution's area. ALA also stated that in order to maximize the effectiveness of the discounts, where a library consists of a main and one or more branch libraries, the library system should be allowed the option to report each branch service area separately and allocate the discounts accordingly. In either case, the library would still be required to maintain records documenting its procedures for reporting the level of its discount eligibility ALA believes that an eligible institution should be allowed to submit a simple self-certification in order to be eligible for discounts. Such a submission would be a sufficient, minimally burdensome way of qualifying for the discounts particularly if eligible institutions are required to maintain and make available records documenting compliance with each of the four items listed. ALA also filed comments with EdLiNC, the Education & Library Networks Coalition of which ALA is a member. ALA would like to thank other library organizations for contacting ALA about their filings. ALA will continue to meet with the FCC as they conduct a final rulemaking on the implementation of the Joint Board recommendations. It still appears that the FCC is on track to implement rules on telecommunications discounts for libraries and schools in time for the beginning of the 1997-98 school year. For more information, see "Discounted Telecom Rates: What Libraries Need to Do Now" (pgs. 16-17) in the February issue of American Libraries magazine. _________________________________________________________________ ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc @ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. Visit our Web site at http://www.alawash.org. ALA Washington Office 202.628.8410 (V) 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F) Washington, DC 20004-1701 800.941.8478 (V) Lynne E. Bradley, Editor Deirdre Herman, Managing Editor Contributors: Andrew Magpantay Anne Heanue Claudette Tennant Mary Costabile All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================