================================================================= ALAWON Volume 6, Number 66 ISSN 1069-7799 July 30, 1997 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (123 lines) APPROPRIATIONS BILLS: HIGHER EDUCATION & OTHER PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS BUDGET AGREEMENT INCLUDES UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND GIMMICK _________________________________________________________________ APPROPRIATIONS BILLS: HIGHER EDUCATION & OTHER PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Both House and Senate Appropriations Committees have issued their bills (H.R. 2264 and S. 1061) and reports (H. Rept. 105-205 and S. Rept. 105-58) on the FY98 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations. Previous ALAWON issues discussed LSTA and el/sec education and reading programs. This issue highlights College Work-Study and other programs of interest to academic and research librarians, library educators, and the field generally. Both bills must be passed by their respective chambers; a House- Senate conference process will resolve differences after the congressional August recess. Programs highlighted below had provisions or commentary of special interest. COLLEGE WORK-STUDY. The House bill would increase the college work-study program to $860 million. The Senate bill would provide $830 million, the same as current funding. The Administration requested $857 million for this program under which many academic libraries employ part-time students. According to the H. Rept. 105-205: "The Committee considers this program to be among the highest priorities under its jurisdiction and has limited funds for lower priority program elsewhere in the bill in order to increase funding..." S. Rept. 105-58 noted: The Committee believes that the community service requirements, as part of the student's overall academic program, are especially compatible with the administration's America reads initiative." The House report notes that the Administration's decision to waive the institutional matching requirements associated with certain community service such as the proposed America Reads Challenge, "is estimated by the Department to result in a reduction of 15,000 students served and the loss of $16,000,000 to the program in matching funds during the 1997-1998 school year." EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND STATISTICS. The House bill would provide a total of $244.2 million, the Senate bill $210.7 million, for educational research and statistics. Current funding is $206.2 million; the Administration requested $239.2 million. Activities include research institutes, such as the one funding postsecondary education, libraries, and lifelong learning research; the National Center for Education Statistics, including library statistics; the National Library of Education, and the ERIC system. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE. The House bill would provide $161.2 million, and the Senate bill $162.8 million, for NLM. This is more than the President's request of $155.9 million and considerably more than the current funding of $150.8 million. Both House and Senate reports commend NLM's High Performance Computing and Communications program and express pleasure that NLM is one of six government agencies involved in the Next Generation Internet initiative and encourage it to undertake new health applications for this initiative. NCLIS. Both bills would provide $1 million for the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, an increase of $103,000 above current funding, but $123,000 below the President's request. The House report notes that under the 1996 reauthorization for LSTA, NCLIS advises the Institute of Museum and Library Services on implementation of library programs. _________________________________________________________________ BUDGET AGREEMENT INCLUDES UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND GIMMICK The latest version of the budget and tax agreement negotiated by congressional leaders and the White House includes language manipulating the universal service fund in the years 2001 and 2002. This fund, made up of contributions from various telecommunications service providers, has historically been used to keep rural telephone consumers' bills as low as possible. Starting in 1998, this fund will also fund the $2.25 billion program which will provide 20-90% universal service discounts for libraries and schools on telecommunications, internet, and internal connections services. While the language appears to be in flux (and hence it is unclear what the effect of the budget agreement would be on the universal service fund), ALA believes that this fund -- which is not federal money -- should NOT be manipulated in order to help balance the budget. This position is being supported by a number of Senators and Representatives who recognize the critical nature of the fund. The agreement represents the House-Senate conference version of H.R. 2015, the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, and is expected to be voted on by both House and Senate this week before they adjourn for the August recess. _________________________________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo 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: Carol C. Henderson Claudette W. Tennant All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================