ALAWON v4n82 (September 15, 1995)
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/alawon/alawon-v4n82

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

                            Volume 4, Number 82
                             September 15, 1995

   In this issue: (256 lines)
     OVERVIEW OF CONGRESSIONAL ACTIVITY AFTER THE AUGUST RECESS
          ACTION NEEDED

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       OVERVIEW OF CONGRESSIONAL ACTIVITY AFTER THE AUGUST RECESS

Activity in Congress has reached a feverish pitch as House and Senate push
to meet the deadline for the 13 annual appropriations bills to be completed
before October 1, the beginning of the new 1966 fiscal year.  Thus far, two
weeks into the month, seven bills have reached the conference stage and the
Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill (H.R. 1854) conference report has
been approved by the House.

The Senate version of H.R. 2127, the Labor, Health and Human Services, and
Education Appropriations Bill, was approved by the Senate subcommittee on
September 13, with full Appropriations Committee action scheduled for
Friday, September 15, and Senate floor action expected next week.  H.R.
2076, the Commerce, Justice, State, Judiciary Appropriations Bill, was
approved by the full Senate Appropriations Committee on September 12.

If all 13 bills are not completed by the deadline, it will be necessary for
Congress to pass a continuing resolution to keep the federal government
operating.  Also of concern are several Presidential statements about
vetoes of some appropriations bills, including the Labor-HHS-Education bill
that includes library funding.  Many commentators are contemplating a
possible stand-off between Congress and the President and calling the
resulting government shut-down a "train wreck".  An enterprising D.C. law
firm is even offering seminars on how to deal with the possible train
wreck.

Other large measures to be dealt with are a budget reconciliation bill
designed to cut costs in programs where doing so requires changes in
eligibility rules; a controversial welfare reform bill, and several
reauthorization measures.


LSCA REAUTHORIZATION

The status of H.R. 1617, the CAREERS Act, which includes a library block
grant adaptation of the proposed Library Services and Technology Act, is
changing.  On September 15, a new bill number will be issued and H.R. 1617
will be merged with H.R. 1720, a bill on Sallie-Mae and student loans.
Watch for this new bill to move onto the House floor on September 19.

The Senate bill, S. 856, reauthorizes the National Endowment for the Arts
and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and includes the Library
Services and Technology Act administered by a new Institute of Museum and
Library Services.  The bill has now been reported out of the Senate Labor
and Human Resources Committee as S. Report 104-135.  The report includes an
excellent summary of the LSTA proposal and a rationale for the placement in
an independent institute.  (See also earlier ALAWONs.)


LABOR, HHS, EDUCATION APPROPRIATIONS

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services,
and Education reported out the FY96 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill
on September 13.  The Subcommittee restored $1.9 billion above the House-passed
 level.  Goals 2000, not funded in the House-passed version, was
restored to $300 million.  Library programs fared well in the Senate
version, thanks to strong Senate subcommittee support.  Several programs
zeroed out by the House would be funded.  See table below.


PROGRAM               FY95        FY96           FY96
                      Approp.     House          Senate
(Amounts                          Passed         Subcom.
in Thousands)                                    Passed

***************************************************************
LSCA I-            $ 83,227     $ 83,227        $ 83,227
Public Library
Services

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

LSCA III-            23,700       18,000          18,000
Interlibrary
Cooperation

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

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

HEA II-B-             6,500         -0-            2,000
Library Research
& Demonstrations

NCLIS                    901         450             829

NLM                  125,748     141,439         134,858

School Improvement   598,548     550,000         550,000
Programs
(Chapter 2 and Prof. Dev.)

ESEA Education        22,500      25,000         25,000
Technology

Educational           86,200     101,578         90,000
Research

Educational           80,910      80,910         76,818
Assessment
& Statistics

The Senate full committee has acted, but numbers are not yet available.
The Rep. Istook (R-OK), amendment referred to in the August 4th ALAWON,
which prohibited the use of federal funds for political advocacy was not
included in the Senate bill.  Apparently Rep. Istook is attempting to
attach it to the conference report of the FY96 Postal Treasury
Appropriations Bill.

ACTION NEEDED:
Library supporters should thank Senate Appropriations Committee members for
their efforts on behalf of libraries and urge all Senators to support these
amounts for library programs when H.R. 2127 reaches the Senate floor.


NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES

Humanities supporters gathered on Capitol Hill on September 12 to discuss
appropriations for NEA/NEH and make Congressional visits asking members to
recommend that conferees on H.R. 1977, the FY96 Interior Appropriations
Bill, vote for the Senate version which would appropriate approximately
$110 million for NEH and include no phase-out language.  The House-passed
version would fund NEH at $99 million and assumes a three-year phase-out
for both Endowments.

Sheldon Hackney, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities,
suggested that participants were engaged in "evangelism for civic virtue."
Rep. Pat Williams (D-MT) said the group should not take "no" or "maybe" for
an answer.  Williams said, "This place is about choices and options and
there are a million different ways to move towards a balanced budget."
Rep. Peter Torkildsen (R-MA) and Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT) both made
presentations in favor of the Humanities, with Torkildsen saying when you
"see something that's the right thing to do you should do it."   Sen.
Bennett described the significant investment by the private sector because
of the leveraging ability of endowment grants.

The day was sponsored by Americans United to Save the Arts and Humanities,
an umbrella group including the National Humanities Alliance to which ALA
belongs, the Association of American Universities, and the Federation of
State Humanities Councils.

ACTION NEEDED:
Library supporters should contact conferees and their individual Senators
and Representatives asking them to vote for the Senate version of the
Interior Appropriations Bill (H.R. 1977).  Likely conferees are:

HOUSE: Rep. Ralph Regula (House Subcommittee Chair) (R-OH); Rep. Joseph
McDade (R-PA); Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ); Rep. Joe Skeen (R-NM); Rep. Barbara
Vucanovich (R-NV); Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC); Rep. George Nethercutt (R-WA);
 Rep. Jim Bunn (R-OR); Rep. Robert Livingston (R-LA); Rep. Sidney Yates
(D-IL); Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA); Rep. Tom Bevill (D-AL); Rep. David Skaggs
(D-CO); Rep. David Obey (D-WA).

SENATE: Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA); Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-OR); Sen. Ted
Stevens (R-AK); Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS); Sen. Pete Dominici (R-NM); Sen.
Connie Mack (R-FL); Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT); Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT);
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV); Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-SC); Sen. Bennett Johnston
(D-LA); Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT); Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-AR); Sen. Harry
Reid (D-NV); Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA).


TELECOMMUNICATIONS BILLS

Thus far, names of House and Senate conferees on the telecommunications
bills, H.R. 1555 and S. 652, have not been made public although it is
expected that the conferees will be named in the next few days.  Conferees
are usually selected from the committees with jurisdiction over the bills
and published in the Congressional Record.

In order to preserve the Snowe-Rockefeller-Kerrey-Exon amendment, a
provision allowing  "discounted rates for schools and libraries" in S. 652,
ALA and other groups in the educational coalition have been sending letters
and lobbying potential conferees and supporters to keep the SRKE amendment
in the final bill.  There is a weaker K-12 school related provision in H.R.
1555 though it does not include public libraries.

ACTION NEEDED:
Library and education supporters should contact their congressional
representatives and senators (even if they are not expected to be on the
conference committee) and ask them to contact the conferees to retain the
Snowe-Rockefeller-Kerrey-Exon amendment as they negotiate the final
legislation.

Conferees should also be asked to remove the Exon-Gorton amendment from the
Senate bill.  Though there remain problems with the Cox-Wyden amendment in
the House bill, it is considered somewhat less intrusive into First
Amendment rights that the Exon alternative. None of these censorship-related
 provisions are endorsed by ALA.  It has been reported that the
President may veto the legislation unless some concessions or changes are
made.  This may be another of those collision-courses issues.  More
information on this issue after the conferees are named.


COMMERCE, JUSTICE, STATE, JUDICIARY APPROPRIATIONS

This week the FY96 Commerce, Justice State Appropriations Bill was approved
by the Senate Appropriations Committee.  The Senate Report (S. Report 103-139)
 on H.R. 2076,  details the information referred to in ALAWON,
September 7.  TIIAP (community information infrastructure) grant funding
would be eliminated in FY96 and rescinded from FY95.  The bill is scheduled
for floor action September 18.

ACTION NEEDED:
Library supporters should call Senators immediately to reinforce the
message of the importance of TIIAP grants and the value of NTIA.  All
current applicants for TIIAP grants are strongly urged to contact their
Senators to protest this elimination of funding for the TIIAP program.
Zeroing out a modest information infrastructure program when thousands of
applicants have already, in good faith, devoted time and resources to
developing applications, securing community partners and matching funds, is
both unfair and not cost effective.

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