ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 8, Number 109
October 26, 1999

In this issue:
	
[1] Appropriations Update on Labor-HHS-Appropriations Bill
[2] Istook Amendment Removed from Labor-HHS-Education Bill

[1] Appropriations Update on Labor-HHS-Appropriations Bill

House floor action on the conference report for H.R. 3064, the 
District of Columbia spending bill, now includes the FY2000 Labor-
HHS-Education appropriations conference report.  It has been re-
scheduled for possible action on Wednesday, October 27.  This 
timetable may slip further since the proposed across-the-board cut 
of 1.4 percent and the problematic proposals in the District of 
Columbia appropriations are delaying the final bill. 

According to coalition sources, the across-the-board cut would 
result in more than $400 million less than the conference report 
total for library programs and education. The bill would provide 
only a $1.1 billion increase over FY99, $100 million less than the 
President's request and $700 million less than the Senate levels.

[2] Istook Amendment Removed from Labor-HHS-Education Bill

The good news is, as a result of recent maneuverings, the Istook 
filtering amendment has been removed from the Labor-HHS-Education 
conference language.  The amendment would have forced all 
libraries and schools to install blocking and filtering software 
on all Internet accessible computers.  

It is clear that the efforts of library supporters helped cause 
this change.  Proponents of the Istook amendment may still try to 
reattach the filtering provision during floor debate.

ALAWON will continue to post updates on both appropriations status 
and filtering amendments.

******
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, Miriam Nisbet, Carrie Russell, Emily 
Sheketoff, Saundra Shirley, Claudette Tennant and Rick Weingarten.