ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 10, Number 34 May 7, 2001 In this issue: E-Government Legislation Introduced by Sens. Lieberman & Burns "The E-Government Act of 2001," S. 803, was introduced by Senators Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) and Conrad Burns (R-MT) on May 1st. The legislation is co-sponsored by Jeff Bingaman, (D-NM), Peter Fitzgerald, (R-IL), Thomas Daschle, (D-SD), John McCain, (R-AZ), Thomas Carper (D-DE), Richard Durbin, (D-IL), Tim Johnson, (D-SD), John Kerry, (MA), Patrick Leahy, (D-VT), and Carl Levin, (D-MI). Among the bill's key provisions are: * Creation of a Federal government-wide chief information officer to be located in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) * Formalization by statute of the Federal Chief Information Officers Council (CIO Council) * Establishment of an Interagency Information Tech Fund The bill also addresses: * The ongoing support and development of a centralized portal and directory of Federal government Web sites * Further investigation into an Online National Library * Creation of a Federal Information Technology Training Center * Assessment of community technology centers Court web sites, privacy, security, agencies' Web sites, an online staff directory, the study of disparities in access to the Internet, and accessibility standards are also addressed in S. 803. Of particular interest to the library community is the provision related to preserving government information and making it accessible and usable for the public. S. 803 makes a number of proposals that address lifecycle management issues of Federal government electronic information, including long term permanent public access. The proposed legislation also articulates the need for Federal government agencies and departments to work more collaboratively as e-government information and actual transactions come online. Sens. Lieberman and Burns held a press conference on May 1st to announce the e-government bill's introduction. Both Senators emphasized that this bill is a "work in progress" and that further discussions are underway to improve and change the bill. ALA and other library organizations have indicated their willingness to participate in ongoing discussions about S. 803 as it moves forward. The library community is very supportive of the life- cycle approach to government information in the bill and will participate in the debate on numerous aspects of the legislation, especially permanent public access. ALA President Nancy Kranich spoke at the May 1st press conference which also happened to be ALA's 27th National Library Legislative Day. Referencing the approximately 650 library advocates lobbying for library issues on Capitol Hill that day, Kranich said: "I am pleased to be here. . . to share our mutual interest in and commitment to the issues surrounding the development of e- government services. The issues related to access to government information are critical to us. We are particularly pleased that Senator Lieberman is incorporating into his e-government initiative life cycle information management issues, including the collection, organization and preservation of online government information. Librarians stand ready to work with [all stakeholders] to ensure that every American can participate in e- government and that no one is left behind in the digital age." The full text of the current draft of S. 803 is available at: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=107_cong_bills&docid=f :s803is.txt.pdf Sen. Lieberman's statement at the May 1st press conference is available at: http://www.senate.gov/~lieberman/press/01/05/2001501810.html The text of ALA President Nancy Kranich's statement is at: http://www.ala.org/washoff/kranichegovt.pdf ****** 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.