ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 8, Number 23 March 10, 1999 In this issue: [1] Secretary Riley Makes Numerous Appearances on Capitol Hill [2] Continued Funding for Federal Library and Related Programs - Chart [1] Secretary Riley Makes Numerous Appearances on Capitol Hill For the last several weeks, Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley has been criss-crossing Capitol Hill, appearing before authorizing committees in Senate and House. Riley appeared before the House Subcommittee on Labor, Health, Human Services and Education Appropriations last week, and this week he was before House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on the Administration's FY2000 Budget request. The March 9 hearing was chaired by Rep. Roger Wicker (R-MS), who took the chair since Rep. John Porter (R-IL) was held up by the rapidly falling snow. Wicker said it was interesting that both he and Secretary Riley, although southerners had managed to make it to the hearing on time, while Porter (from Illinois) was held up. Riley at the outset discussed the comprehensive school reform initiative, supported strongly by Reps. David Obey (D-WI) and Porter. The model of proven reforms had been successful, he said, and was an example of how federal resources support local improvement. Riley added that the President's budget would increase the program by $30 million. He stressed the importance of Goals 2000 in making sure that standards in one degree or another were implemented in states, and had been significant in school reform. He cited this year's 20,000 college work-study students who have signed up to tutor children in reading as helping to advance the President's reading initiative. Several times during his testimony, Secretary Riley stressed the importance of the E-rate and said it was critical to getting all schools and children connected to the Internet. He said technology -- and its introduction to students -- was "important to our nation's future." "Strengthening accountability" was cited by Riley as a key priority of the Administration, both for appropriations as well as reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Riley continued that in the Administration's proposal for ESEA reauthorization he intended to merge Goals 2000, Eisenhower Professional Development and Title VI-Innovative Education Program Strategies into a major training program to introduce standards to the classroom. A larger than usual number of subcommittee members were in attendance and had questions for the Secretary. Rep. Porter as chair said that there was bi-partisan interest and concern about education but that sometimes problems arose in addressing items in a bi-partisan matter. Porter said that, "politics often gets in the way of good policy." Secretary Riley also appeared before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee in the afternoon. [2] Continued Funding for Federal Library and Related Programs - Chart The attached chart lists the FY2000 President's Budget requests for library programs and related programs as compared to the FY99 Appropriations. A more comprehensive chart, including FY99 Budget Request, is available at http://www.ala.org/washoff/budget2000.html. FY2000 BUDGET REQUEST FOR FEDERAL LIBRARY AND RELATED PROGRAMS LIBRARY PROGRAMS FY 99 FY 2000 (amounts in thousands) Approp. Budget Req. __________________________________________________________________ GPO Superintendent of Documents 29,264 31,245 Library of Congress 91,660(1) 416,800(2) Library Services and Technology Act 166,175(3) 154,500 National Agricultural Library 19,000 21,000 National Commission on Libraries & Information Science 1,000 1,300 National Library of Medicine (includes MLAA) 181,309 181,443 __________________________________________________________________ LIBRARY-RELATED PROGRAMS (amounts in thousands) __________________________________________________________________ Adult Education and Literacy 385,000 575,000 ESEA title I, Education for Disadvantaged 8,357,520 8,721,920 ESEA title I-B, Even Start 135,000 145,000 ESEA title II-A, Eisenhower professional development (Federal activities) 23,300 30,000 ESEA title II-B, Eisenhower professional development (State grants) 335,000 0 ESEA title III, Educational Technology 698,100 801,000 Technology Literacy Challenge Fund 550,100 450,000 Star Schools - part B 45,000 45,000 ESEA title VI, Innovative education program strategies (State grants) 375,000 0 ESEA title X-I, 21st Century Community Learning Centers 200,000 600,000 Education of Handicapped Children 5,054,685 5,106,435 (state grants) Educational Research & Dissemination 143,567 198,282 Educational Statistics 68,000 77,500 Educational Assessment 40,000 44,500 Goals 2000 491,000 491,000 HEA title III, Institutional Development 258,750 259,800 HEA title IV-C, College Work-Study 870,000 934,000 HEA title VI, International Education 67,536 69,022 HEA title X-A, Postsecondary Ed. Improvement Fund 50,000 27,500 Inexpensive Book Distribution (RIF) 18,000 18,000 Literacy Initiative (proposed legislation such as Am. Reads or Reading Excel.) 260,000(4) 286,000 Museum Grants 23,405(5) 34,000(5) NTIA Information Infrastructure Grants (TIIAP) 18,000 20,102 National Archives & Records Administration 224,614 186,452 National Endowment for the Arts 98,000 150,000 National Endowment for the Humanities 110,700 151,400 National Historical Publications & Records Commission 10,000 6,000 1 Includes authority to obligate $28 million in receipts 2 Includes authority to obligate $33.1 million in receipts 3 Includes $15.4 million in statutory mandated specific projects 4 Includes $210 million permanent authority from FY98 5 Includes $1 million for joint library/museum projects under LSTA National Leadership Projects grants Compiled by: American Library Association, Washington Office ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Editor: Lynne E. Bradley; Managing Editor: Deirdre Herman; Contributors: Phyllis Albritton, Mary Costabile, Carol Henderson, Peter Kaplan, Claudette Tennant and Rick Weingarten.