ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 11, Number 84
October 17, 2002

In This Issue: [1] LITERACY THROUGH SCHOOL LIBRARY AWARDS [2] 
CONGRESS ORDERS WHITE HOUSE TO USE GPO TO PRINT BUDGET

[1]LITERACY THROUGH SCHOOL LIBRARY AWARDS ANNOUNCED

On September 27, 94 grants were announced for the FY2002 Improving 
Literacy Through School Libraries program.  The grants are one-
year grants to school districts in which 20 percent of the 
students are from families with incomes below the poverty line.  
Details about the program may be researched at 
www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/LSL.  

Many of the grants were awarded to rural school districts, with 
states like New York and Oklahoma receiving the largest number of 
grants at 10 and 15 respectively.

Because Congress has not yet finished the annual appropriations 
process, it is not yet clear what funding level there will be for 
the program for FY2003, but the President's Budget request set 
funding at $12.5 million, the same as FY2002, while the Senate 
appropriations bill would raise funding to $25 million.  Over 
1,000 applications for the grants were received by the Department 
of Education.  Thanks to the many school library media specialists 
that volunteered to be peer-reviewers for the grant applications.

[2]CONGRESS ORDERS WHITE HOUSE TO USE GPO TO PRINT BUDGET

Included in last week's Continuing Resolution (expires Oct. 18) 
was an order by Congress instructing the White House to use the 
Government Printing Office to print the President's 2004 budget 
proposal package.  The order follows one included in the last CR 
that instructed executive branch agencies to secure printing 
services from GPO as well.

In response, Amy Call, OMB spokeswoman, indicated that the White 
House would once again ignore the order pointing to a Justice 
Department opinion that says Congress does not have oversight over 
executive branch agency procedures.

Both orders demonstrate the ongoing struggle between Congress and 
the executive branch stemming from the May 2002 Office of 
Management and Budget memoranda authorizing government agencies to 
go outside of GPO, to private contractors, for their printing 
needs (see the ALAWON dated May 16 for background information).  
Go to http://207.27.3.291.dailyfed/1002/101102b1.htm to read an 
article from Government Executive magazine with more details.

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