================================================================= ALAWON Volume 7, Number 95 ISSN 1069-7799 August 13, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (136 lines) MESSAGES FOR CONGRESSIONAL RECESS CONTACTS SUPPORT S. 2288, GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS REFORM ACT FUND LSTA AT $160 MILLION RESPECT LOCAL DECISION MAKING ON INTERNET CONTENT PROTECT THE E-RATE _________________________________________________________________ MESSAGES FOR CONGRESSIONAL RECESS CONTACTS During the August recess members of Congress will be in their states and districts. Upon their return to Washington, there will be very little time left in the legislative session. Now is a critical time to ask them for their support on issues of importance to all libraries. Contact your members of Congress in their district offices; invite them to your library; attend local events where you might have the opportunity to raise library issues; even leave messages in their Washington offices. To help you in these activities the Washington Office invites you to visit, again or for the first time, our Legislative Action Center Web page (http://congress.nw.dc.us/ala/) and take advantage of the opportunity to add your personal experiences to sample messages so you can help convince Congress to do the following: GOVERNMENT INFORMATION MESSAGE - SUPPORT S. 2288 ! The Wendell H. Ford Government Publications Reform Act of 1998, S. 2288 was jointly introduced by Sens. John Warner (R-VA) and Wendell Ford (D-KY) on July 10. Through the Inter-Association Working Group on Government Information Policy (http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/GODORT/iawgpage.html), the library field has been well represented in talks with Senate staff about provisions in the bill, which has strong support from librarians and library advocates. S. 2288 revises Title 44 of the United States Code to improve public access to government publications and includes key provisions to strengthen the Federal Depository Library Program. It will make government publications in all formats easier to identify and to locate; ensure continuous and permanent public access to electronic government publications; and help prevent "fugitive documents". LIBRARY PROGRAM FUNDING MESSAGE - FUND LSTA AT $160 MILLION HR 4274, the FY99 Labor, Health & Human Services and Education Appropriations bill is awaiting action by the full House and is scheduled to be worked on in the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services and Education on September 1. Full Senate Appropriations Committee action is scheduled for September 3. The House bill contains $146 million for library programs (LSTA), the same as last year's funding and the President's budget request. The House bill also sets funding for ESEA Title VI at $400 million, $50 million higher than last year's funding. A modest increase in LSTA to a level of $160 million would position LSTA to help public, school and academic libraries in all states make needed new investments in their communities. These investments include activities such as connecting to the Internet, supporting literacy, providing job and consumer health information, serving small business, supporting lifelong learning, and assisting and training students and the public in new technology. INTERNET CONTENT MESSAGE - RESPECT LOCAL DECISION MAKING ! On July 20, 1998 the House Appropriations Committee reported a Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill, H.R. 4274, which included a provision by Rep. Ernest Istook, Jr. (R-OK) that would require public schools and libraries to install software to protect children from obscenity, as a condition of receiving federal funds from any federal agency for the acquisition or operation of computers accessible to minors and with access to the Internet. LSTA, most K-12 education programs, and many other federal program funds would be conditioned on this requirement. On July 23, 1998 the Senate passed S. 2260, Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary Appropriations, which included a provision by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), which requires libraries and schools that receive e-rate telecommunications discounts to install filtering software. Alternative language was proposed by Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) and others to require local Internet use policies rather than blocking or filtering software, but these amendments were not successful. Though the House version of Commerce Appropriations does not include the same provision, Rep. Bob Franks (R-NJ) has sponsored similar legislation (H.R. 3177) which has some support in the House. TELECOM DISCOUNTS MESSAGE - PROTECT THE E-RATE! The e-rate provides K-12 schools and public libraries discounts of 20-90% on telecommunications services, Internet services, and internal connections as part of universal service provisions in the Telecommunications Act. The e-rate was one of the few public service obligations imposed on carriers in return for deregulation in 1996. More than 30,000 schools and libraries have completed the application process (requesting approximately $2 billion in discounts), secured local and state level approval, and committed other financial resources for ineligible hardware, software, training, and the non-discounted portion of discounted services. Schools and libraries have made plans for this year's programs made based on congressional promises and Federal Communications Commission commitments that funding would be available. Communities can't afford any further delays or cutbacks to this program. The FCC has already cut funding by 40% and may be forced to halt the discounts under pressure from congressional critics and local and long distance phone companies. Thank you for your help and attention. Action on all of these items is critical now! _________________________________________________________________ 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 R. Costabile Claudette W. Tennant All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================