ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 8, Number 89 September 13, 1999 In this issue: Action Needed to Remove Filtering Provision from Juvenile Justice Bill ACTION NEEDED: Library supporters are urged to contact conferees on the Juvenile Justice bill (H.R. 1501) and speak against the Children's Internet Protection Act, sections 1401-1403, of the House version of the bill. Request that this provision be dropped from the conference report. Explain that the E-rate need not be linked to filtering mandates in order to assure that libraries and schools will manage Internet access appropriately. CONFEREES ON THE JUVENILE JUSTICE BILL (H.R. 1501) ST-DST PTY SENATOR/REPRESENTATIVE PHONE FAX (use 202 area code) AL R Sen. Jeff Sessions 224-4124 224-3149 CA-16 D Rep. Zoe Lofgren 225-3072 225-3336 CA-26 D Rep. Howard Berman 225-4695 225-5279 DE-1 R Rep. Michael Castle 225-4165 225-2291 FL-8 R Rep. Bill McCollum 225-2176 225-0999 FL-12 R Rep. Charles Canady 225-1252 225-2279 GA-7 R Rep. Bob Barr 225-2931 225-2944 IL-6 R Rep. Henry Hyde 225-4561 225-1166 MA D Sen. Edward Kennedy 224-4543 224-2417 MA-4 D Rep. Barney Frank 225-5931 225-0182 MI-9 D Rep. Dale Kildee 225-3611 225-6393 MI-14 D Rep. John Conyers 225-5126 225-0072 MI-16 D Rep. John Dingell 225-4071 MO-1 D Rep. William Clay 225-2406 225-1725 NC-6 R Rep. Howard Coble 225-3065 225-8611 NY-4 D Rep. Carolyn McCarthy 225-5516 225-5758 PA-8 R Rep. James Greenwood 225-4276 225-9511 PA-17 R Rep. George Gekas 225-4315 225-8440 PA-19 R Rep. William Goodling 225-5836 226-1000 SC R Sen. Strom Thurmond 224-5972 224-1300 SC-4 R Rep. James DeMint 225-6030 226-1177 TX-21 R Rep. Lamar Smith 225-4236 225-8628 UT R Sen. Orrin Hatch 224-5251 224-6331 VA-3 D Rep. Robert Scott 225-8351 225-8354 VA-7 R Rep. Tom Bliley 225-2815 225-0011 VT D Sen. Patrick Leahy 224-4242 WI-6 R Rep. Thomas Petri 225-2476 225-2356 CURRENT SITUATION: As Congress returns to work, conferees on the very controversial Juvenile Justice bill, H.R. 1501, will begin to hammer out a compromise. Unless conferees hear a strong message from constituents that the Children's Internet Protection Act is unacceptable, the Juvenile Justice bill is likely to retain this provision as it moves towards final approval by the House and Senate. Even if H.R. 1501 includes the Children's Internet Protection Act when it receives final approval from Congress, the President must still sign it. However, while many controversial provisions in the bill may cause a presidential veto, the Children's Internet Protection Act alone is unlikely to provoke such an action. BACKGROUND: Reps. Bob Franks (R-NJ) and Charles Pickering (R-MS) included the Children's Internet Protection Act in the House passed version of the Juvenile Justice bill (H.R. 1501) (see the June 18 ALAWON at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon/alwn8063.html ). This legislation would withhold E-rate discounts from any library or school which did not select, install, and use on all computers with Internet, access a technology to filter or block (1) child pornography, (2) obscenity, and (3) "during use by minors," material that is deemed "harmful to minors." If at some point a library or school does not comply with the requirements, all E-rate discounts received after that point must be repaid immediately. This legislation would override any less stringent Internet use policy that a local library or school may already have in place. The bill attempts to address local interests by requiring libraries, schools, and school boards to determine what materials are "harmful to minors." ****** 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: Sally Benson, Mary Costabile, Peter Kaplan, Carrie Russell, Saundra Shirley, Claudette Tennant and Rick Weingarten.