================================================================= ALAWON Volume 7, Number 35 ISSN 1069-7799 April 2, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (136 lines) ACTION NEEDED: HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE INVITES COMMENTS ON LIBRARY POSTAL RATE; ALA SUBMITS COMMENTS NONPROFIT ANTI-ADVOCACY PROVISION DEFEATED: THANKS TO ALL _________________________________________________________________ ACTION NEEDED: HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE INVITES COMMENTS ON LIBRARY POSTAL RATE; ALA SUBMITS COMMENTS The House Postal Service Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. John McHugh (R-NY), has invited public comment on the proposed revisions to the Postal Reform Act (H.R. 22). On April 1 ALA submitted comments to the subcommittee concerning the bill, which was first introduced in January 1997. The U.S. Postal Service has proposed a 28.57% increase for the first pound of the library rate as part of its July 10 request to the Postal Rate Commission to change postal rates. Such a drastic increase inevitably would lead to cuts in library services, especially in rural areas. (For more information, see http://www.ala.org/washoff/postal.html.) The current and proposed USPS rate schedules and classification changes were published by the Postal Rate Commission in the Federal Register (July 23, 1997, pp. 39660-709). ALA is participating in the pending postal rate case to challenge the proposed increases in the library rate, increases much higher than the average 4.5% proposed across all types of domestic mail. While H.R. 22 goes into considerable detail on both commercial and nonprofit rates, ALA's comments urged that the legislative reform proposed by Chairman McHugh, the bill's sponsor, be used to improve the arcane, costly, and frustrating rate making process. In summary, ALA: 1. Supported the recommendations of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, a coalition to which ALA belongs; 2. Emphasized a key Alliance recommendation that nonprofit postal rates be maintained as a fixed percentage of the corresponding regular rates, so that in future rate cases, each nonprofit rate would rise or fall at the same rate as the most closely corresponding regular rate; 3. Recommended that H.R. 22 mandate that the library rate as of the date of enactment be set at an appropriate percentage below the commercial book (or "special standard") rate; and 4. Expressed appreciation for the fact that the bill would continue free mail for the blind through a congressional authorization of appropriations. 5. Reviewed the unusual history and the extraordinary recent and proposed increases in the library rate, and the difficulty in getting, analyzing, and protesting Postal Service cost data -- the only way at present to have an impact on new rate requests by USPS. (If the current 26.5% increase in a typical 3-lb. library rate package is approved, such a package would have increased from $1.14 in 1994 to $2.48 later in 1998 -- a 117.5% increase in little more than three years.) ACTION NEEDED: Library rate mailers, especially those most dependent on the library rate for books-by mail programs and interlibrary loan, are encouraged to comment quickly to the House subcommittee. You are welcome to use ALA's points, and it would be helpful to have constituents, especially from Rep. John McHugh's home state of New York, reiterate these points. Please add information on how major increases in the library rate affect library services to users. Please send a blind copy to the ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW #403, Washington, D.C. 20004 or e-mail Anne Heanue at aah@alawash.org. Comments must be mailed by April 7 to: The Honorable John McHugh, Chairman House Subcommittee on Postal Service Committee on Government Reform and Oversight B349C Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 If you send your comments both by mail and on a disk (Word or WordPerfect), they will be posted to the subcommittee's web site at http://www.house.gov/reform/postal/postal.htm _________________________________________________________________ NONPROFIT ANTI-ADVOCACY PROVISION DEFEATED: THANKS TO ALL On March 30 the House of Representatives failed to pass H.R. 3581, a bill introduced just hours before the vote to replace H.R. 3485, the Campaign Reform and Election Integrity Act. H.R. 3581, unlike H.R. 3485, did not include the provision that would have restricted nonprofit organizations advocacy activities, as reported in ALAWON (see ALAWONs, v7, n33, March 30, 1998 and v7, n30, March 24, 1998). It appears that H.R. 3581 was introduced without the anti-advocacy provision in an attempt to gain more support for the bill. However, because H.R. 3581 was introduced so late, many Representatives believed that nonprofits were still affected and spoke out against the provision on the House floor. Even without the nonprofit provision, the H.R. 3581 was defeated 74-337. Reports indicate that the nonprofit community's opposition to the anti-advocacy language in the H.R. 3485 had a significant impact on the legislative process. Thanks to all who asked their Representatives to oppose this restrictive language. _________________________________________________________________ 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. =================================================================