================================================================= ALAWON Volume 6, Number 109 ISSN 1069-7799 December 9, 1997 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (188 lines) FY98 LABOR, HHS, EDUCATION APPROPRIATIONS IN THE FIRST SESSION OF THE 105TH CONGRESS _________________________________________________________________ FY98 LABOR, HHS, EDUCATION APPROPRIATIONS IN THE FIRST SESSION OF THE 105TH CONGRESS NOTE: This is the first of two ALAWONs on the 105th Congress. The second part,"UNFINISHED LEGISLATION FOR THE SECOND SESSION OF THE 105TH CONGRESS" will be the subject of an upcoming ALAWON. The FY98 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill was signed into law (P.L.105-78) by the President on November 13. Prior to that time, funding for all remaining unfinished appropriations bills had been provided through several continuing resolutions, since the fiscal year began on October 1. The issue of national education tests, which had impeded final congressional action on the bill was resolved over long weekend action and the House adopted the conference report (H. Report 105-390) on November 7, and the Senate acted on November 8. This is the second year in a row that major increases for education have been approved by the Congress. This year's increase is $3.2 billion over the funding level for education programs in FY97. The Library Services and Technology Act is funded at $146,340,000 for FY98, a $10 million increase over predecessor programs in FY97. The conference agreement puts the LSTA national leadership grants at 4 percent as the law provides. ESEA Title VI, Innovative Education Program Strategies, which some schools use for school library materials, was funded at $350 million, as passed by the House, rather than $310 million, the FY97 level and the amount passed by the Senate. For new reading programs, the conferees provided $210 million for a "child literacy initiative"; with funding becoming available on October 1, 1998 only if authorizing legislation passes by July 1, 1998. (See a description of the Reading Excellence Act in an upcoming ALAWON.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- FY 98 APPROPRIATIONS FOR FEDERAL LIBRARY AND RELATED PROGRAMS _________________________________________________________________ LIBRARY PROGRAMS FY 97 FY 98 (amounts in thousands) Approp. Approp. _________________________________________________________________ GPO Superintendent of Documents 29,077 29,077 Library of Congress 361,896 (1) 376,719 (2) Library Services & Technology Act (or predecessor) 136,369 (3) 146,340 National Agricultural Library 19,000 19,000 National Commission on Libraries & Information Science 897 1,000 National Library of Medicine (includes MLAA) 151,103 161,185 _________________________________________________________________ LIBRARY-RELATED PROGRAMS (amounts in thousands) _________________________________________________________________ Adult Education and Literacy 354,562 360,551 ESEA title I, Education for Disadvantaged 7,689,000 8,012,112 Part B - Even Start 101,997 124,000 ESEA title II - Eisenhower professional development Part A - Federal activities 13,342 23,300 Part B - State grants 310,000 335,000 ESEA title III, Educational Technology 305,000 584,035 Part A - (includes Technology Literacy Challenge Fund) 266,965 541,000 Part B - Star Schools 30,000 34,000 ESEA title VI - Innovative Education Program Strategies State grants 310,000 350,000 Education of Handicapped Children State grants 3,783,685 4,531,695 Educational Research (OERI) 72,785 72,567 Educational Statistics 50,000 59,000 Educational Assessment 32,623 35,471 Goals 2000 491,000 491,000 HEA title III, Institutional Development 194,846 210,945 HEA title IV-C, College Work-Study 830,000 830,000 HEA title VI, International Education 59,751 60,351 HEA title X-A, Postsecondary Education Improvement Fund 18,000 25,200 Inexpensive Book Distribution (RIF) 10,265 12,000 Literacy Initiative (proposed legislation such as Am. Reads) --- 210,000 Museum Grants 22,000 23,280 (4) NTIA Information Infrastructure Grants (TIIAP) 21,490 20,000 National Archives & Records Administration 196,963 205,167 National Endowment for the Arts 99,494 81,240 National Endowment for the Humanities 110,000 96,800 National Historical Publications & Records Commission 5,000 5,500 Next Generation Internet (NGI) --- 95,000 (5) _________________________________________________________________ 1 Includes authority to obligate $30.138 million in receipts 2 Includes authority to obligate $30.3 million in receipts 3 Includes appropriations for LSCA and HEA Title II 4 Includes $1 million for joint library/museum projects under LSTA National Leadership Projects grants. 5 Includes funding for NGI divided among Dept. of Defense, National Science Foundation, NASA, Dept. of Commerce, Dept. of Energy, and the National Institutes of Health. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FY98 INTERIOR APPROPRIATIONS On November 14, the President signed H.R. 2107, the Interior Appropriations bill which included funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities (P.L. 105-83). This appropriations bill had been hotly contested and funding for the programs were continued through many continuing resolutions. Concern about the President's proposed use of the line-item veto may have saved the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities for another year. Funding for NEA was set at $98 million which was $1.5 million below FY97. Funding for NEH was $111 million. The President released a statement at the bill signing that he was concerned about the low level of funding for these agencies that "provide important cultural, educational, and artistic programs for communities across America." This bill also included $23.3 million for museum grants administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. FY98 COMMERCE, JUSTICE, STATE APPROPRIATIONS The last appropriations bill to be approved by Congress, H.R. 2267, was signed on November 13 (P.L. 105-119). One of the most difficult issues of contention was whether to allow the Census Bureau to use statistical sampling to supplement the traditional head count when conducting the 2000 census. The final language allows the Census Bureau to use statistical sampling in trial runs of the 2000 census at two sites, but a third test site would use actual enumeration. It also provides for an expedited judicial review of the constitutionality of statistical sampling and would create an oversight board to oversee preparations for the 2000 census. The legislation provides $389,887,000 to conduct the decennial census with $ 4 million of this amount to be transferred to the Census Monitoring Board. The legislation also includes funding for the Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program (TIIAP) at $20 million. FY98 LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS One of the earliest appropriations bills completed, H.R. 2016 was signed by the President on September 9 (PL 105-45). The Government Printing Office FY98 appropriation for the Superintendent of Documents is $29,077,000. The GPO SuDocs operation includes the Federal Depository Library System. The Library of Congress will have available appropriations of $376,719,000, which includes the authority to spend receipts of $30,295,000. This amounts to an overall increase of 4.4 percent over FY97 funding. _________________________________________________________________ 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: Mary Costabile Claudette Tennant Carol Henderson All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================