ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 8, Number 32
March 30, 1999

In this issue:

Jeanne Hurley Simon Testifies on NCLIS FY2000 Appropriations 

On March 25 the House Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education 
Appropriations heard testimony from Jeanne Hurley Simon, 
chairperson of the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and 
Information Science, on their fiscal year 2000 budget request.  
Simon was accompanied by Robert S. Willard, NCLIS executive 
director. The FY2000 budget request for NCLIS is $1.3 million, 30 
percent more than the current fiscal year.

Simon acknowledged that this was her sixth appearance before the 
subcommittee, noting that President Clinton had appointed her to a 
second five-year term in 1998.  John Porter (R-IL), chairman of 
the subcommittee, told Simon that it was "wonderful to see" her. 

Simon said there are two vacancies among the 14 positions 
appointed by the President in the membership of the Commission.  
Three more vacancies will result from the expiration of 
Commissioners' terms in July.  In addition, NCLIS "has taken great 
strides to rebuild our staff," she said.

Among the accomplishments of the past year, Simon highlighted a 
November 1998 public hearing on access by children to 
inappropriate material on the Internet, especially in public and 
school libraries (see ALAWON v7, n140, November 12, 1998 at 
http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon/alwn7140.html).  A brochure 
designed to assist local authorities in understanding the policy 
issues and evaluating possible solutions is in its second 
printing. (The brochure, "Kids and The Internet: The Promise and 
The Perils," is available in PDF format at http://www.nclis.gov.)

In addition to building on past activities, NCLIS plans to address 
issues concerning intellectual property protection and 
telecommunications policy in the coming year.  

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