ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 13, Number 103
December 9, 2004

In This Issue: E-Rate Fix Legislation Passes! Thank you for your help!

Since August 2004 when the E-rate program was suspended, ALA members have continuously put the pressure on Congress and the FCC to restore the E-rate by emailing hundreds of letters describing the benefits of E-rate for their library users.

Late last night, in the final minutes of the 108th Congress, the Senate passed H.R. 5419 by voice vote, resolving the accounting problem that has held up the distribution of E-rate funds to libraries and schools. In passing legislation to fix the E-rate accounting problem, Congress has allowed thousands of schools and libraries to continue to provide telecommunications services to communities. 
Your calls and emails to Congress and to the FCC worked! Congratulations on a job well done. Please take the time today to thank your senators for their support of this important program. Let your senators know how important the E-rate is to your library, and how much their support of the program means to your community. Last night's decision paves the way for more discussions in the coming year of ways to make the E-rate program more stable. 

ALA's Legislative Action Center records show the impact of your communication about this issue:

From October 2004 through December 8, 2004, the Washington Office posted seven (7) e-rate related alerts and requests for action. ALA members responded by sending a total of:

*516 emails to their members of Congress
*118 faxes to their members of Congress
*72 emails to the FCC 

Librarians in the following states participated in the campaign to save E-rate during this time period:  

Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,Louisiana,Maryland,Massachusetts,Michigan,Minnesota,Mississippi,Missouri,Montana,Nebraska,New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. (If you have emailed or faxed your members of Congress about the e-rate, but your state has not been recognized above, please email us at ehaggerty@alawash.org.)

Once again, congratulations on your work and thank you for your help! Please feel free to call the Washington Office at (800)941-8478 if you have questions or need more information about the E-rate or other issues. 



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Remember: You Can Call Any MEMBER OF CONGRESS Toll-Free: 1-800-839-5276
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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; Carol Ashworth, Don Essex, Joshua Farrelman, Erin Haggerty, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Carrie Lowe, Kathy Mitchell, Carrie Russell. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.