================================================================= ALAWON Volume 7, Number 76 ISSN 1069-7799 June 25, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (58 lines) ACTION NEEDED TODAY: PASS THE SENATE VERSION OF THE READING EXCELLENCE ACT TONIGHT _________________________________________________________________ ACTION NEEDED TODAY: PASS THE SENATE VERSION OF THE READING EXCELLENCE ACT TONIGHT The Senate is expected to adjourn for the July 4 recess tomorrow (Friday, June 26), but the House will adjourn tonight. In order for action to take place on H.R. 2614, The Reading Excellence Act, as passed by the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, the bill needs to be voted on by the full Senate no later than today. The Senate version (reported in S. Rept. 105-208) includes school and public libraries as partners in this literacy effort for children. The House version only references public libraries. If the bill is not finalized before the recess, money allocated in FY98 for the legislation will go to other areas of the budget (For more information see the ALA Washington Office issue brief, "Literacy Issues: The Reading Excellence Act; Adult Education Act Reauthorization" at http://www.ala.org/washoff/read.html). IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED: Call your Senators (U.S. Capitol switchboard 202-224-3121) and ask to speak to the Education staff person. Urge the Senate to pass its version of H.R. 2614 today. The Senate intends to be in session late into the evening. Thanks for your help! _________________________________________________________________ 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 All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================