ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 9, Number 55 June 20, 2000 In this issue: URGENT ACTION ALERT: 1) Save Depository Library Funds; Immediate Calls Needed to Restore Legislative Branch Appropriations Before June 21st Vote 2) House Considers Commerce, Justice, State Appropriations. Save Depository Library Funds; Immediate Calls Needed to Restore Legislative Branch Appropriations Before June 21st Vote: Every member of the House of Representatives should hear from library advocates again as soon as possible about the need to restore full funding to the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and the Government Printing Office (GPO). Library supporters should call and ask for all FDLP funding to be restored as part of H.R. 4516, the House Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill. The House of Representatives switchboard number is 202-224- 3121. JUNE 21 VOTE POSSIBLE: A House floor vote on H.R. 4516 is possible on Wednesday, June 21 unless House debate is lengthy on agriculture or other appropriation bills. The House Rules Committee will be discussing the procedural steps allowed on H.R. 4516 starting at 5 pm today, June 20th. This schedule and agenda is still subject to change though clearly it appears that H.R. 4516 is starting to move. Major GPO Layoffs Possible, Government Documents May Become Available Only Electronically: Reports indicate that around $95 million has been restored by the House leadership into leg branch appropriations. This still means only partial restoration of the funds to the FDLP and GPO. Even with some of this restored money, all government documents that are now in both tangible and electronic formats would have to be available ONLY in electronic formats under this latest appropriations scenario. Further, possibly 176 staffers could be laid off from GPO. Ask your member of the House of Representatives to: 1) vote to restore funding to the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and the Government Printing Office at the requested level of $34.5 million for FY 2001 when it comes to the floor of the House and 2) make supportive floor statements which can include the following talking points. - the FDLP serves an estimated 9.5 million people in the aggregate each year, more than 7,100 per year per library and more than 21,000 constituents per district per year; - constituents use this information to find jobs, to do home work, to start small businesses, to learn what their government is doing; - the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) is the main way that constituents get access to government information that they have already paid for with their tax dollars; - the FDLP distributes government publications to over 1300 depository libraries and many other libraries regularly acquire and heavily use government documents; - during FY 1999, the FDLP disseminated 16.1 million copies of more than 40,000 titles in paper and microfiche to libraries; - the American public still needs paper copies of basic federal publications (ex.: U.S. Code); - relying solely on electronic information will increase the Digital Divide; - only 50% of new titles available through the FDLP from federal agencies are available electronically; - over 15,000 government document titles are available in both electronic and tangible formats; budget cuts to require these documents to be available only electronically limits the public's right to know; - the FDLP and GPO have been made huge advancements in increasing access to government information in electronic formats and in embracing long-term electronic permanent public access; - our Nation is still in a transition period where both tangible and electronic information is necessary; we cannot afford to limit public access to this critical information. (2)HOUSE CONSIDERS COMMERCE, JUSTICE STATE APPROPRIATIONS On June 19, the House Appropriations Committee voted on and reported out the FY 2001 Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies appropriations bill (H.R. 4690; H. Rept. 106-680). The Committee report recommends $15.5 million for the Information Infrastructure Grants program under NTIA. The amount is the same as that approved for FY 2000 and $29.6 million below the Administration's budget request. The argument for the decreased funding would be that, according to the report, "the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-104) will provide significant new opportunities for bringing the information superhighway to schools and libraries, which were not previously envisioned when this program was created." H.R. 4690 is one of three appropriations bills scheduled for consideration by the House this week. The VA-HUD bill is scheduled for consideration first, with Agriculture, Legislative Branch and Commerce-Justice State next on the list. ****** 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.