================================================================= ALAWON Volume 7, Number 32 ISSN 1069-7799 March 25, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (153 lines) ACTION NEEDED: UPDATE ON STATUS OF INTERNET SCHOOL FILTERING ACT _________________________________________________________________ ACTION NEEDED: UPDATE ON STATUS OF INTERNET SCHOOL FILTERING ACT There are conflicting reports about whether or not S. 1619, the Internet School Filtering Act sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), will be modified before it goes to the full Senate. Official announcements from the Senate Commerce Committee continue to report that S. 1619 was passed on March 12 without modification. However, ALA, who had a staff member at the hearing, noted that the committee approved S. 1619 with the agreement that modifications will be made based upon proposals from Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) and Sen. John Breaux (D-LA) (see ALAWON v7, n25, March 12, 1998). Recent inquiries by ALA to staff members for Sens. Conrad Burns (R-MT), John Breaux (D-LA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) confirm that they fully expect compromise language and have begun to discuss how such language can be negotiated. Modification of S. 1619 was also supported in a March 16 New York Times editorial, which said, "...recognizing potential opposition from educators and librarians, Mr. McCain kept open the possibility that a compromise would be offered when the bill reached the Senate floor" ("Filtering the Internet", sec. A, pg. 24). A White House spokeswoman said that the White House favors approaches backed by Sens. Burns and Edward Markey (D-MA) over that of Sen. McCain, according to the March 25 electronic publication, Telecom AM (see http://www.telecommunications.com/am/). On March 23, Vice President Gore, in a speech at the National PTA Legislative Conference, said that, "...on behalf of President Clinton, I am calling for new legislation to require every school and library that applies for the e-rate to come up with its own plan for protecting children from objectionable Internet content. These plans would be developed in the community not in the Congress." (The entire transcript of the Vice President's speech is available online at http://www.pta.org/events/legconf2/goresp.htm). However, no legislation to federally mandate filtering has yet been enacted, nor should any of these proposed bills in any way stop or change the process or requirements for applying for the telecommunications discounts. Public and school librarians working on applications should aggressively continue with the process within the current deadlines. The Schools and Libraries Corporation 75-day window for E-rate applications will close on April 15. ALA continues to closely monitor this issue and will report further as information becomes available. ACTION NEEDED: The message from public and school library supporters to their congressional representatives and senators is that compromise language to S. 1619, Sen. McCain's Internet Filtering Act, should support Sen. Burns's proposal regarding local use policies. Congress should: (1) ALLOW local communities determine appropriate use policies, (2) NOT include an inappropriate federal mandate requiring filtering/blocking, and (3) NOT tie filtering/blocking into eligibility for the telecommunications discount program. The U.S. Capitol Switchboard phone number is 202-224-3121. For more information please contact Lynne Bradley at the ALA Washington Office at 1-800-941-8478. BACKGROUND As originally introduced February 9 by Senate Commerce Committee Chair John McCain (R-AZ), S. 1619 would require libraries and schools to certify they have installed Internet filtering or blocking software in order to receive the E-rate telecommunications discounts authorized in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 under universal service provisions. The Senate Commerce Committee passed the bill by voice vote on March 12 but with a public agreement among the senators that, if two proposed amendments were withdrawn, there would be the opportunity to work out "compromise" language before the bill went to the full Senate. On March 12 ALA argued, in its statement for the hearing record on S. 1619, that since there is little control at the local level as to what is blocked by the available filtering/blocking software this provision in the bill would be problematic. In its statement, ALA also argued that there should be no federal requirements mandating filters nor should such filtering be tied in any way into the telecommunications discount program. The ALA written statement for the hearing record is posted at http://www.ala.org/washoff/mccain.html. This bill is cosponsored by Sens. Fritz Hollings (D-SC), Dan Coats (R-IN), Patty Murray (D-WA), Ted Stevens (R-AK), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), and Herbert Kohl (R-AZ). In the McCain proposal, libraries would be required to use a filtering system on one or more of their computers so that at least one computer will be appropriate for minors's use. Schools receiving universal service discounts would have to install a filtering system on all of their computers so that objectionable online materials would not be accessible to students. Although not in the bill language, supporters of S. 1619 have suggested that they would make such filtering technology eligible for the E-rate discount. The bill also says that "determination of what matter is appropriate for minors shall be made by the school, school board, library or other authority responsible for making the required certification" and that no agency of the United States government may "establish criteria" or review the decisions made by a local governing board. The two amendments under consideration included one by Sen. Burns and another from Sen. Breaux. Burns's amendment, also supported by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and John Kerry (D-MA) as well as by the library and education communities, would require libraries and schools to certify that they have appropriate Internet use policies in order to obtain the discounts. Sen. Breaux proposed another alternative which would require a kind of flexible filtering, intended to allow access for adults, customizing of filtering etc. Sen. Burns has been especially articulate in arguing that a federal mandate requiring filtering would not be flexible enough to allow for use of new technologies in the future nor would it keep the responsibility on how best to work with children where it belongs -- with parents and local libraries and schools. Meanwhile in the House two related bills have been introduced. On February 11 Rep. Bob Franks (R-NJ) introduced H.R. 3177, a bill essentially identical to the McCain proposal. On March 11 Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) introduced H.R. 3442, a bill that would require appropriate local use policies. No action in the House has been scheduled, but this election year session remains highly fluid. ALA continues to closely monitor this issue and will report further as information becomes available. _________________________________________________________________ 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 All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================