ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 10, Number 61 August 14, 2001 In this issue: [1] APPROPRIATIONS UPDATE [2] ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT CONFERENCE CONTINUES- ACTION STILL NEEDED APPROPRIATIONS UPDATE Congress has adjourned for the August recess with less than half of the thirteen appropriations bills in some kind of posture for finalization. Energy, Interior, Legislative Branch, Transportation and VA/HUD are passed by both House and Senate and ready for conference between the two bodies. Preliminary information from the White House reveals that President Bush is reluctant to consider the Labor, HHS, Education appropriations bill and the Defense appropriations bill as the last two bills of the session. Congress will return after Labor Day with a late- August forecast of any remaining surplus for FY2002 and an increasingly tight fiscal outlook for the remaining appropriations bills. Of the five appropriations bills ready for conference, almost all of them are set somewhat higher than the President's request. There will be approximately 17-18 legislative days left before October 1, the start of the new fiscal year. Hints of continuing resolutions have been floated with plans to set funding at last year's level for however long the resolutions continue. While that is a record-keeping nightmare for federal agencies, it would be one way of cutting funding without a recission. Another way would be to pass all the bills and then reduce them all by a percentage level to reach budgetary compliance. Since many states are suffering from revenue short-falls, the pressure will build from states to increase education funding, a big-ticket state issue, to cover the short falls. It promises to be an exciting fall with opportunities to be seized by library supporters. ACTION NEEDED: Library supporters can use the opportunity of the summer recess to deliver messages to Representatives and Senators about the importance of funding for the Library Services and Technology Act. This year the level of funding should be increased to $350 million, which would allow states to offer many more important library programs to users, technology training, business and jobs information, pre-school story hours and parenting skills classes, literacy programs and a multitude of other key library programs. Use the Capitol Switchboard (202-224-3121) to contact staff, or call the local office and invite Representatives and Senators to your library. Many elected officials use the recess to hold local town meetings, visit the county fairs, etc. Use those opportunities to ask for support for library program funds. [2] ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT CONFERENCE CONTINUES- ACTION STILL NEEDED Even though Senators and Representatives have returned home for the summer recess, education staff members continue to meet to try to hash out the differences between the two immense elementary and secondary education bills. ACTION NEEDED: It is still critical for school library supporters to continue to contact conferees (see list below) to ask House conferees to recede to Senate school library resources language (section 1229) and Senate conferees to continue to support the Senate school library resources language. Explain the need in your school or state. Use the ala legislative action center at http://capwiz.com/ala/home and please customize our suggested letters. Senate Conferees: Edward Kennedy (D-MA)* Christopher Dodd (D-CT)* Tom Harkin (D-IA)* Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)* Jim Jeffords (I-VT)* Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)* Paul Wellstone (D-MN)* Patty Murray (D-WA)* Jack Reed (D-RI)* John Edwards (D-NC)* Hillary Clinton (D-NY)* Joseph Lieberman (D-CT)* Evan Bayh (D-IN)* Judd Gregg (R-NH) Bill Frist (R-TN) Michael Enzi (R-WY) Tim Hutchinson (R-AR) John Warner (R-VA)* Kit Bond (R-MO) Pat Roberts (R-KS) Susan Collins (R-ME)* Jeff Sessions (R-AL)* Mike DeWine (R-OH)* Wayne Allard (R-CO) John Ensign (R-NV) *voted for the school library resources language on Senate floor. House Conferees: John Boehner (R-OH) Thomas Petri (R-WI) Marge Roukema (R-NJ) Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-CA) Michael Castle (R-DE) Van Hilleary (R-TN) Lindsey Graham (R-SC) Johnny Isakson (R-GA) George Miller (D-CA) Dale Kildee (D-MI) Major Owens (D-NY) Patsy Mink (D-HI) Rob Andrews (D-NJ) Tim Roemer (D-IN) ****** 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.