ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 9, Number 36
April 20, 2000

In this issue:

[1] BUDGET BLUEPRINT A GLOOMY PICTURE FOR DISCRETIONARY PROGRAMS:                
ACTION ALERT


On April 13, both House and Senate passed a Budget Resolution (H. 
Con. Res. 290) which set the outline for spending for FY2001.  
While the overall level set for discretionary spending was $600.3 
billion, $310.8 billion was set for defense and $289.4 billion for 
non-defense discretionary spending.

 Provisions were made for an $11.6 billion tax cuts for FY2001 and 
at least $150 billion over five years.  The resolution includes 
instruction to House Ways and Means and Senate Finance to report 
out two tax cut bills.  The resolution also created a point of 
order against any advanced appropriations totaling more than $23.5 
billion and against designating any non-defense spending as 
emergency spending.  These were two devises used in the past few 
years to spread out spending into the next fiscal year, and, in 
terms of emergency spending, to decrease pressure by declaring 
some spending emergency (census funding for FY2000) when it was 
not.

The effect of this budget resolution is to decrease spending in 
almost all of the 302(b) allocations.  For example, for the 
Legislative Branch appropriations, which includes funding for the 
Library of Congress and the Government Printing Office and the 
Depository Library program, the allocation would be $2.36 billion 
or $94 million less than $2.45 billion of FY 2000, according to 
the 4/13/00 issue of Congress Daily.  

Allocations for Labor-HHS, Education would be $98.52 billion, or 
$2.36 billion more than last year's $96.16 billion, but with most 
of the increase planned for special education IDEA of $2 billion, 
leaving around $200 million for all other elementary and secondary 
education programs and no new funding for higher education and 
Head Start.  

It is expected that Appropriations subcommittees in the House will 
begin markups on their bills very early in May.  The Legislative 
Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee will mark up on May 
2, with full committee consideration on May 5.

In FY2000, budget conservatives further cut the Agriculture 
Appropriations legislation during debate on the House floor, even 
though members of the Agriculture Subcommittee proclaimed they had 
delivered a bill under the caps.  It is expected that the same 
behavior may occur this year, but some subcommittee allocations 
are already significantly less than last year's, like that of the 
Legislative Subcommittee--already cut by $94 million below the 
allocation of FY2000.

ACTION NEEDED:

Library supporters should contact their House members to 
communicate with members of the Legislative Appropriations 
Subcommittee, stressing the importance of funding for LC, GPO and 
the Depository Library program.  While members are on spring 
recess, they can be contacted at their home offices or use the 
Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121.

House Appropriations Subcommittee on Legislative

Rep. Charles H. Taylor (R-NC)  (202) 225-6401 Chair
Rep. Zack Wamp (R-TN)    (202) 225-3271
Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)   (202) 225-5861
Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX)  (202) 225-5071
Rep. John Peterson (R-PA)  (202) 225-5121
Rep. Ed Pastor (D-AZ)  (202) 225-4065
Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) (202) 225-2065
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) (202) 225-4131


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