ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 14, Number 16
February 28, 2005

In This Issue: E-Rate Action Needed

Your Help Needed:  Ask senators to Cosponsor S. 241

Grassroots library supporters are asked to contact their senators and ask them to cosponsor S. 241, a bill that would permanently resolve the accounting disputes over the e-rate and other universal service programs.  Senators Snowe (R-ME),Rockefeller (D-WV), Stevens (R-AK), and Inouye (D-HI)  introduced S. 241 to "amend section 254 of the Communications Act of 1934 to provide that funds received as universal service contributions and the universal service support programs established pursuant to that section are not subject to ...the Anti-deficiency Act (ADA)."  

Listed below are the 14 current cosponsors of S. 241.  
     - If your senators are not on the list below, please contact her/him as soon as possible and ask them to cosponsor this important bill.  

     - If your senators are on the list of cosponsors please call or contact him/her to say thank you for their support.

BACKGROUND:  The e-rate telecommunications discounts were frozen for several months late last year because of a dispute over whether or not universal service programs were required to comply with government accounting requirements and other provisions of the Anti-deficiency Act (ADA).  For decades universal service had not been subject to ADA requirements.  A one-year "fix" was passed in the last vote of the 108th Congress, just before it recessed in December 2004.  But a permanent resolution to this problem is now needed to provide continuity and stability to the e-rate program.

There is no similar bill in the House of Representatives at this time, although efforts will begin soon to seek House sponsors.  In the interim, library supporters should say "Thank you!" to the House members and tell them about how the e-rate discounts are helping communities and their libraries and schools.

For further background see the ALAWON reports at: www.ala.org/washoff/news.

Current cosponsors of S. 241:
Sen Baucus, Max [MT] 
Sen Burns, Conrad R. [MT] 
Sen Chafee, Lincoln [RI] 
Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham [NY] 
Sen Corzine, Jon S. [NJ] 
Sen Dayton, Mark [MN] 
Sen Dodd, Christopher J. [CT] 
Sen Inouye, Daniel K. [HI] 
Sen Jeffords, James M. [VT] 
Sen Johnson, Tim [SD] 
Sen Nelson, Bill [FL] 
Sen Reed, Jack [RI] 
Sen Rockefeller, John D., IV [WV] 
Sen Stevens, Ted [AK] 


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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.