ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 10, Number 29 April 9, 2001 In this issue: [1] BUSH BUDGET NUMBERS RELEASED TODAY [2] SENATE PASSES BUDGET RESOLUTION; CONGRESS IN RECESS FOR TWO WEEKS [1] BUSH BUDGET NUMBERS RELEASED TODAY On Monday, April 9, President Bush released the specific numbers for his FY2002 Budget. The five hefty volumes plus A Citizen's Guide to the Federal Budget can be accessed on-line at http://w3.access.gpo.gov/usbudget/fy2002/maindown.html The Institute of Museum and Library Services library program funding under the Library Services and Technology Act would drop from the FY2001 high of $207,219,000 to the FY 2002 proposed level of $168,078,363, of which $11,081,000 according to law would be used for the National Leadership Program. Funding for the Office of Museum Services would drop slightly from FY 2001 $24,907,000 to FY2002 request of $24,898,879. The President's budget would abolish funding for the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. The budget narrative states "Other agencies can effectively perform the necessary functions for which the Commission has been responsible." Funding for FY2001 for NCLIS was $1.4 million. The Department of Education has scheduled a briefing on the education section of the budget for 3:00 p.m. today and we will report further education line items in a later ALAWON. In her testimony to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education on March 20, Emily Sheketoff asked the members to increase LSTA funding in FY2002 to $350 million. She described the $350 million request as a "down payment" needed for better equity for library services across the country. [2] SENATE PASSES BUDGET RESOLUTION ; CONGRESS IN RECESS FOR TWO WEEKS The Senate voted 65-35 to adopt an amended version of H.Con. Res 83, the FY2002 Budget Resolution. It is expected that informal negotiations between House and Senate conferees may take place during recess. The Budget Resolution outlines the overall spending priorities, with the budget allocations later being divided up among the thirteen appropriations committees. During the extensive debate on the Budget Resolution, several amendments were passed which enlarged the funding category for education by reducing the size of the Administration's proposed tax cut and splitting the amount between increased education spending and debt reduction. Senator Tom Harkin's (D-IA) amendment, supported by the Committee for Education Funding, the education coalition to which ALA belongs, was the largest amendment to pass, but an amendment on increased funding for Community Technology Centers and teacher/librarian professional development, by Senator Barbara Mikulski, (D-MD), also supported by ALA passed on April 6. ***** 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. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.