ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 9, Number 45 May 18, 2000 In this issue: (1) Senate Appropriations Markup, 2:00 pm, Thursday, May 18 (2) Other Appropriations Action (3) Interior Appropriations Markup in House (4) English Literacy - Civic Education Grants Awarded Senate Appropriations Markup, 2:00 pm, Thursday, May 18 The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday, May 18 at 2 pm, will hold a markup of the FY2001 Legislative Branch Appropriations. Please keep the grassroots pressure on. If your Senator is on the Appropriations Committee the message is to fund the Library of Congress, the Copyright Office, the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and the Government Printing Office at the requested level of $31.2 million for FY2001. If you Senator is not on the Appropriations Committee have them talk to their colleagues who are on the Committee about the importance of the FDLP and the need to for access to both tangible and electronic forms of government information. Advocates are encouraged to use the ALA Legislative Action Center (LAC), an online service which connects library advocates with their congressional representatives and senators. The LAC includes sample letters and emails as well as other information about this issue. The URL is: http://congress.nw.dc.us/ala/. The Capitol Switchboard number is 202/224-3121. If you have any questions or would like further information, contact Lynne Bradley or Mary Costabile at 1/800-941-8478. OTHER APPROPRIATIONS ACTION Both the House and Senate have reported out their FY2001 Labor, HHS Education Appropriations bills. The Senate bill, S. 2553 (S. Report 106-293) details a total of $168 million for the Office of Library Services: Grants and Administration in the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which is $1.7 million more than FY2000, but below the Administration's request of $173 million. State grants would be set at $143,118,000 while $13 million is recommended for National leadership projects. The Committee Report specifically recommends a collaboration between the Alaska Native Heritage Center and the Bishop Museum and a project to assist the National Women's History Museum to improve its internet website. The report language on p. 328-329 requests IMLS to give "full and fair consideration" to 35 different entries. The House report and bill number are not yet available, but the House Labor HHS Education Subcommittee has proposed $170 million for the Office of Library Services, IMLS. ACTION NEEDED: Either in the next week before Memorial Day recess, or early in June, a conference committee will be appointed from members of both Houses to determine the compromise between the differences in the bills. The message to those conferees would be to choose the House's higher number and resist any final earmarks for library programs. INTERIOR APPROPRIATIONS MARKUP IN HOUSE Today, the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee met to markup the Interior Appropriations bill. From the outset it was apparent that deep divisions exist between the majority and minority members of the Subcommittee. Rep. Dave Obey (D-WI) speaking for the minority said he was saddened by the 302(b) allocation received by the Subcommittee since it was woefully inadequate for the Subcommittee's areas of responsibility. The Subcommittee allocation was $14.6 billion, $300 million below that of FY2000 and $1.7 billion below the Administration's request. Proposed funding for the National Endowment for the Arts would be level with FY2000 or $98 million, and funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities would be level with FY2000 or $115.26 million. Both numbers are significantly below the Administration's FY 2001 budget request. English Literacy - Civic Education Grants Awarded The U.S. Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult Education has awarded 12 grants, totaling $6.9 million over two years, to test ways of better combining instruction in English and civics. The winners were selected through an extensive competitive process that generated nearly 170 applications. One of the award winners is a consortium in Elsmford, New York, that will establish Immigrant Learning Centers in the White Plains and New Rochelle Public Libraries. Each center will consist of a classroom and adjoining technology lab with five computer workstations. By June 30, 2003, the centers will admit 1,560 mostly Hispanic adults to teach them English as a second language, civics, citizenship, life skills, job readiness and basic computer literacy. Grant applications for the next fiscal year will begin as soon as the appropriations process for FY2001 is complete. For more information regarding the English Literacy/Civics Education Grant Program, see: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OVAE/ELCIVICS/elcivqa.html and for more information regarding other grants or funding opportunities from the Department of Education, see: http://www.ed.gov/funding.html. ****** 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. 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. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Mary Costabile, Peter Kaplan, Miriam Nisbet and Claudette Tennant. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Jennifer Hendrix, Carrie Russell and Saundra Shirley.