ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 10, Number 38
May 10, 2001

In this issue:
	SENATE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH SUBCOMMITTEE HOLDS HEARING ON 
APPROPRIATIONS FOR GPO

On May 10, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Legislative 
Branch Appropriations held a hearing on FY2002 appropriations for 
the Government Printing Office and the Superintendent of 
Documents.

In his opening remarks Senator Robert Bennett, chair of the 
subcommittee, welcomed Michael DiMario, the Public Printer, Fran 
Buckley, the Superintendent of Documents, and other staff from the 
Government Printing Office and asked them for details on the 
"substantive increase" requested for FY2002.  

In his testimony, DiMario explained the short-fall of funding from 
FY2001, increased costs not covered by appropriations, for 
example: for printing of the U.S. Code.  He stated that even 
though GPO used surplus funding from two previous years to pay for 
FY2000, a short-fall existed nevertheless, and FY2001 funding was 
below the requested level as well.

GPO is requesting $126.5 million, with $29.6 million for salaries 
and expenses of the Superintendent of Documents.  In addition to 
making up for shortfalls in past years, GPO is requesting funds 
for hiring employees for cataloging and indexing, and $6 million 
for air conditioning and lighting improvements recommended by an 
energy audit conducted by the General Accounting Office last year.

DiMario said that online formats were now the primary means of 
sending materials to Federal Depositiory Libraries.  Senator 
Bennett asked whether GPO Access had had many hackers attempt to 
interfere with the system.  DiMario said over four months, there 
had been 300,000 attempts and only one got into an opening page.  
He said the firewall protection for the system is strong.

The appropriations hearing for GPO and SuDocs has not been 
scheduled in the House, but is expected to be held early in June.

BUDGET UPDATE

The House passed H.Con. Res. 83 on May 9, by a 221-207 vote and 
the Senate began debate on the resolution on the same day.  The 
Senate finished deliberations and passed  the Budget Resolution 
today.

ESEA IN THE SENATE

The Senate has been debating S. 1, the Elementary and Secondary 
Education Act reauthorization this week, but interrupted its 
debate to consider the Budget Resolution.  Senator Jack Reed (D-
RI) offered his school library amendment, but the vote on the 
amendment has not yet occurred. 

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