ALAWON v4n106 (December 22, 1995)
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/alawon/alawon-v4n106

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                                                   ISSN 1069-7799
                             ALAWON
                 ALA Washington Office Newsline
               An electronic publication of the
         American Library Association Washington Office

                      Volume 4, Number 106
                       December 22, 1995

In this issue: (205 lines)
     CONGRESS, THE BUDGET AND FUNDING ISSUES...
          HOLIDAY STATUS REPORT -- ACTION NEEDED
     NO CONGRESSIONAL ACTION ON LSTA AUTHORIZATION BEFORE
          HOLIDAY RECESS
     S. 652, TELECOMMUNICATIONS REFORM LEGISLATION,
          MAY BE EMERGING FROM CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

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CONGRESS, THE BUDGET AND FUNDING ISSUES...HOLIDAY STATUS REPORT

On December 18, parts of the federal government shut down again
because the Continuing Resolution had run out, Congress and the
President had not reached agreement on budget negotiations, and
no new continuing resolution had been passed.

Various scenarios are possible, depending on whether Congress
takes action or adjourns.  The House of Representatives is
debating about adjournment vs. recess.  If a budget agreement is
reached between the President and Congress before the Christmas
recess, adjournment may last until well into January, with both
Houses returning for the President's State of the Union address
on January 23 or 24.  It is possible that there will be no votes
until late in February.  It is anticipated that the President's
budget for FY97 may be presented in skeletal form in February,
with details submitted later in March.  Veterans of past budget
battles recall that in 1987, Congress passed a continuing
resolution for the rest of the fiscal year, which ended a budget
crisis.

The FY96 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education
Appropriations bill, H.R. 2127, remains stalled in the Senate,
with no indication of when or if there will be movement to a
vote. Pressure is building in the Senate to move H.R. 2127,
because the House passed version zeroes out a low income heating
assistance program (LIHEAP), and senators from Northern and
Western states have taken the floor to tell of constituent
hardships.  The Senate bill could fund this program.

A year long continuing resolution could have the effect of
limiting programs to the lower of the levels reached in House or
Senate for programs where appropriations bills are not completed.
Under the most recent Continuing Resolution, programs not funded
by either House or Senate were continued at 75 percent of current
funding until the resolution expired on December 15.

The effect for library programs could be severe if a year-long
resolution continued funding in the same manner.  In any event,
funding levels for library programs would be set at House levels:


                        FY95              FY96 House                      FY96
 Senate
                                                       Approp.            Passed
                               Committee

                                              Passed


LSCA I -Public Library Svcs.         $ 83,227             $ 83,227
              $ 83,227

LSCA II- Library Construction         17,792                    -0-
                    16,369

LSCA III-Interlib. Cooperation         23,700                18,000
                  18,000

LSCA VI--Library Literacy                 8,026                   -0-
                         7,384

HEA II-B Library Ed & Training        4,916                   -0-
                     4,523

HEA II-B Research & Demos.            6,500                  -0-
                     2,000

NCLIS                                                   901
 450                                      829

ACTION NEEDED: Library supporters should contact all senators and
stress the importance of passage of the FY96 Labor, Health and
Human Services and Education Appropriations bill, H.R. 2127, and
the need to press for the Senate's higher numbers for library
programs.  At this writing, it is still possible that the
appropriations bill could be passed in the Senate, although
chance of a conference occurring before recess is not likely.

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         NO CONGRESSIONAL ACTION ON LSTA AUTHORIZATION
                     BEFORE HOLIDAY RECESS

It appears that, although House and Senate staff have made
progress in working on comparisons of the House bill, H.R. 1617,
and the Senate bill S. 143, conferees on the bills have yet to
meet on this legislation that contains different versions of the
Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).  As library
supporters use the holiday season to exchange greetings with
representatives and senators, they should remind them of the
importance to the library community of passage of the
legislation.  These recess periods, when officials are in home
states or congressional districts, are an important opportunity
to communicate about the importance of LSTA and other library
issues.

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         S. 652, TELECOMMUNICATIONS REFORM LEGISLATION,
           MAY BE EMERGING FROM CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

It is unclear whether there is even a shaky agreement within the
telecommunications conference committee that has been negotiating
on S. 652, the Telecommunications Competition and Deregulation
Act of 1995.  It was initially reported that House and Senate
conferees had agreed "in principle" on telecommunications reform
legislation.

Almost immediately, other observers suggested that Yogi Berra's
comment applies: "It ain't over  til it's over."

Even as some congressional staffers confirmed that there was
general agreement among conferees, there were reports that some
Republicans remain skeptical and could not yet affirm this
potential agreement.  While supportive comments have been made by
many participants in the negotiations, including the Clinton
administration, nothing can be assured until the final conference
language is released and agreed to by the conferees.  Amidst the
highly charged political atmosphere, this is becoming
increasingly difficult, even though this telecommunications
reform legislation had been developed in a relatively bi-partisan
manner.

Congressional staff will likely work through the Holiday recess
to draft the final language based on the conference committee
negotiations.  If and when the conferees agree on the final
version, the bill will then go back to the floors of both houses
of Congress for approval.  This will probably not happen until
Congress returns from recess at the end of January.  The most
recent comments from the White House indicate that President
Clinton would not veto the bill, as it presently stands.  One
speculation is that Vice President Gore's recent positive
comments about a telecommunications agreement (in principle) may
be one of the contributing factors that perturbed some
Republicans.

The ALA Washington Office has heard that the Snowe-Rockefeller-Kerrey-Exon
 provision, which mandates a type of affordable
telecommunications rate for K-12 schools and libraries, may have
been kept in the final agreements.  This would be a "win" for
grassroots library advocates who have been working hard to see
this provision prevail.  Again, this is a CAUTIOUS optimism;
nothing is completely settled in this environment and library
advocates should continue to communicate their support for SRKE.

At the same time, library advocates also remain gravely concerned
about the "family online empowerment" amendment which would make
mere "display" of "indecent" material over online services a
criminal offense -- a provision that could seriously threaten
libraries as providers and publishers of online information.

ALA has argued that no such new "cyberporn" legislation is
necessary; existing law on obscenity should be sufficient to
address these issues.  If Congress must pass such new
legislation, ALA and other library advocates argued, that it
should not be based on the overly-broad "indecency" criteria and
that there should be no criminal penalties.  Again, opportunities
to communicate the problems with this provision to conferees and
other representatives and senators should continue to be used
until the bill is finally passed.

Like other issues, such as appropriations, presently before
Congress, the situation is "fluid".  Further information as it
becomes available.  This is a rapidly changing story.

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ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is an irregular publication of the
American Library Association Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania
Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004.  Internet:
alawash@alawash.org; Phone: 202-628-8410; Fax: 202-628-8419.
Contributing to this issue: Mary R. Costabile; Editor: Lynne E.
Bradley (leb@alawash.org).

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