================================================================= ALAWON Volume 7, Number 59 ISSN 1069-7799 June 5, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (212 lines) ACTION ALERT: E-RATE CRISIS: NEW ASSAULT FROM CONGRESSIONAL CRITICS REQUIRES MAJOR GRASSROOTS EFFORT FCC POSTPONES JUNE 9 MEETING NEWS FROM CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORTERS SENATE COMMERCE SUBCOMMITTEE SCHEDULES HEARING FOR JUNE 10 ON E-RATE FUNDING SPECIAL MESSAGE TO E-RATE SUPPORTERS _________________________________________________________________ ACTION ALERT: E-RATE CRISIS: NEW ASSAULT FROM CONGRESSIONAL CRITICS REQUIRES MAJOR GRASSROOTS EFFORT Once again, we must launch a MAJOR GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGN to "save the e-rate." Additional threats from a few congressional leaders were again made yesterday. Congress must hear by next Wednesday; the FCC must hear by next Thursday -- from all applicants and other library supporters of the e-rate. Please write, phone, or e-mail your Senators and Representatives. It is urgent that you make sure that every congressional office publicly expresses its strong support for the telecommunications discounts, scheduled to start on July lst. (Additional key messages from the ALAWON of Wednesday, June 3, 1998, will be reposted at end of this issue.) MESSAGE TO CONGRESS: * Ask your Senators and Representatives to write a letter to Senate and House Commerce Committee members. They may also wish to sign onto "Dear Colleague" letters that will be generated on the Hill. * Ask them to write to the FCC to demonstrate their support for the e-rate. * Ask them to make positive floor statements about the program. * Share information about your community services and how the e-rate will support your libraries and schools; such stories could be included in statements legislators could add to the Congressional Record, during floor statements, etc. * Share your messages with local elected officials and state legislators as well as library and school boards. Ask them to contact your Senators and Representatives in support of the e-rate. _________________________________________________________________ NEW ASSAULT FROM CONGRESSIONAL CRITICS Yesterday, June 4, the chairmen and ranking minority leaders of both the Senate and House Commerce committees wrote to FCC Chairman William Kennard and called for an immediate halt to collection of funding for the e-rate program. Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Ernest Hollings (D-SC) and Reps. Thomas Bliley (R-VA) and John Dingell (D-MI) told the FCC that they want the Commission to "proceed with a rulemaking that implements all universal service programs in a manner that reflects the priorities established by Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996." They contend that the e-rate program was not what Congress intended when it passed the 1996 Telecommunications Act. _________________________________________________________________ FCC POSTPONES JUNE 9 MEETING The FCC has postponed or canceled their public meeting for Tuesday, June 9. As reported in the June 3 ALAWON, at that meeting they were to have made decisions regarding the amount to be collected, the timing and mechanisms for collecting universal service funding for this program, and related consumer protection issues (such as, if or how any line items were to be described on consumer bills.) Most observers predict that the FCC will now wait until after a Senate Commerce Subcommittee hearing scheduled for Wednesday, June 10 before taking any further action. However, the situation remains extremely fluid, if not volatile, so we cannot report with certainty about when the FCC will take action, but something could happen anytime next week. _________________________________________________________________ NEWS FROM CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORTERS Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), and Bob Kerrey (D-NE) are leading the senate efforts to save the e-rate. For example, Sen. Kerrey wrote a letter to Kennard expressing his strong support for the program and arguing that the program is consistent with the intent of the Act. His letter of June 4 read in part: "...we should not be distracted from achieving the goals of universal service by those parties who wish to exploit the issue by misrepresenting universal service to the public. Congress resoundingly reaffirmed the nation's commitment to universal service when it passed ...the Act...Universal Service is designed to ensue that all Americans regardless of location and economic standing, have access to telecommunications services including our children who need access to these services to develop the skills they will need to compete in the global economy of the next century." Kerrey also wrote strong letters to AT&T and MCI expressing his disappointment at their actions and clearly sending the message that he supports the e-rate. This follows an earlier letter from Sens. Jeffords, Kennedy, Rockefeller, Santorum, Chafee, Snowe and Dodd, which Kerrey also signed. Additionally, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) led a major effort with a letter from over 100 House members to the FCC in support of this program. (Reported previously in ALAWON, May 29, v.7, n. 56.) More congressional initiatives are pending expanding the support from other congressional offices. _________________________________________________________________ SENATE COMMERCE SUBCOMMITTEE SCHEDULES HEARING FOR JUNE 10 ON E-RATE FUNDING Meanwhile, Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT), as his way of showing support for the e-rate, has proposed another mechanism to fund the discounts by shifting some or all of the current telephone excise tax to fund the e-rate. Some contend that this would be extremely difficult and time-consuming because of the complex budgeting and taxation issues as well as congressional procedures necessary to change such a tax, even if the excise tax is already on consumer bills. Burns said that using the excise tax to fund this program would be a way to support schools and libraries without jeopardizing traditional universal service. At this time, it is our understanding that a Senate Commerce Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing to discuss the excise tax proposal for next Wednesday, June 10, at 10am. Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA) made a similar proposal urging that the excise tax be modified to fund universal service. _________________________________________________________________ SPECIAL MESSAGE TO E-RATE SUPPORTERS Please keep in mind the big picture. This new program is attempting to implement a precedent-setting policy codified in the 1996 Telecommunications Act: namely, that libraries and schools deserve to be singled out for discounts because of the special, unique role they play as public information access points in their community. While the program needs to be improved, the precedent needs to be preserved. ALAWON readers know, especially those of you from communities with libraries and schools that have applied for the e-rate, that all those applications at the Schools and Libraries Corporation clearly demonstrate the need for this program. We must keep up our efforts to save these discounts and give access to these technologies to our library users and students. RADIO TALK SHOWS? Please call in...Many of you may have heard the Gore tax discussed on Rush Limbaugh and other radio talk shows. We need you to call into these shows to refute the false claims and misrepresentations about the e-rate program. This is in addition to the more traditional use of your local media contacts that might be willing to accept op-ed pieces or do local editorials. These radio talk shows are an escalation of assaults on the e-rate program previously in the TIME magazine article on the Gore Tax and the James Glassman column. Please contact the ALA Washington Office if you have any questions or congressional or press follow-ups you would like us to help with. KEY MESSAGE POINTS TO THE FCC AND CONGRESS: 1.) *IMPORTANT* - For those public and school libraries involved with the application process, please describe some of your pending activities awaiting the full funding of this discount program. 2.) DON'T CUT FUNDING FOR THESE DISCOUNTS. A $2.25 billion annual cap was put on the universal service fund designated for schools and libraries. Maintain this funding. 3.) KEEP ALL ELIGIBLE AND NECESSARY SERVICES IN PLACE. Keep inside connections and related services that will make these networks reach to the end-users. 4.) KEEP UNIVERSAL SERVICE MOVING FORWARD. Don't let other policy disputes disrupt this program. It must move forward to assure every community is connected by the year 2000. For further information contact: Lynne Bradley, ALA Washington Office, voice: 202-628-8410 or 1-800-941-8478/fax: 202-628-8419/ email: leb@alawash.org. The next issue of ALAWON will carry a statement from ALA regarding President Clinton's remarks about the e-rate made earlier today during a graduation speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. _________________________________________________________________ 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. =================================================================