ALAWON v5n08 (March 8, 1996) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/alawon/alawon-v5n08 ------------------- ALWN508.DOS follows -------------------- ****Begin File*************Begin File**************Begin File**** ***************************************************************** ISSN 1069-7799 ALAWON ALA Washington Office Newsline An electronic publication of the American Library Association Washington Office Volume 5, Number 8 March 8, 1996 In this issue: (123 lines) LIBRARY FUNDING FOR CURRENT YEAR MOVING DEBT LIMIT EXTENSION PASSED***************************************************************** LIBRARY FUNDING FOR CURRENT YEAR MOVING On March 7, the House passed H.R. 3019, an omnibus appropriations bill that would include funding for the remainder of this fiscal year for the four FY96 appropriations bills that were never enacted: Commerce, Justice, State; Interior; Labor, Health and Human Services and Education; and VA-HUD. The House added to this bill a lobbying restriction amendment sponsored by Rep. Istook (R-OK), as reported in the ALAWON, Vol. 5, No. 7 of March 7. As far as we know, the comparable Senate appropriation bill does not include this amendment. We will keep you informed as to strategy on the Istook amendment. Preliminary numbers indicate that the Department of Education library program funding total is comparable to that approved earlier by the Senate Appropriations Committee in its earlier funding bill never brought to the floor, but individual program amounts have been adjusted in a process similar to a House-Senate conference agreement. This process produced the highest total for library programs that was possible this year--the amount previously approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The Senate version of the funding bill, S. 1594, contains the same amounts for library programs, and is scheduled for floor action early next week. Amounts in both H.R. 3019 and S. 1594 for Department of Education library programs are as follows: PROGRAM FY95 FY96 1ST FY96 1ST FY96 2ND (in thousands) APPROP. HSE.-PASSED SEN. COM. HSE-SEN LSCA I pl serv $ 83,227 $ 83,227 $ 83,227 $ 92,636 LSCA II pl constr 17,792 0 16,369 16,369 LSCA III interlib 23,700 18,000 18,000 18,000 LSCA VI literacy 8,026 0 7,384 0 HEA II-B ed/tr 4,916 0 4,523 2,500 HEA II-B R&D 6,500 0 2,000 2,000 TOTAL $144,161 $101,227 $131,503 $131,505 Both House and Senate have included contingency plans. The House bill contains $3.3 billion of the $8 billion in additional spending for education and the environment that President Clinton asked for, but only if offsetting cuts in entitlement programs are enacted. The Senate bill requires that the additional amounts would become available only upon enactment of legislation incorporating an agreement between the President and Congress relative to federal expenditures in fiscal year 1996 and future fiscal years. These contingencies would seem to set the stage for further confrontation and deliberations which some are saying might cause a Presidential veto and another government shut down. March 15 is the day the current continuing resolution runs out. Enactment of this bill would allow library programs to be funded for the remainder of the year at higher levels than have been released so far. As the previous short-term funding measures were enacted, small partial payments were released to states under the Library Services and Construction Act, but half-way through the fiscal year, this situation is having an adverse effect on library services supported by LSCA. The ESEA title VI-A innovative education program state grants (including the Chapter 2 program which some schools use for school library resources) would be funded at $275 million. The College Work-Study program would be continued at last year's level of $616.5 million. However, some major education programs are cut substantially or zeroed out. For instance, the House, but not the Senate, would zero out the Goals 2000 program. ***************************************************************** DEBT LIMIT EXTENSION PASSED In other action this week, House and Senate passed a two-week extension of the Treasury's borrowing authority. H.R. 3021 has been sent to the President for signature. The measure would allow the Administration to borrow enough money to pay government debts through March 29. This short-term extension postpones a confrontation over the debt limit for a few weeks, during which time observers expect Congress to put together a package including welfare reform and perhaps a Medicaid proposal. This could set up another President vs. Congress confrontation. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 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: Carol C. Henderson; Editor: Lynne E. Bradley (leb@alawash.org). ALAWON is available free of charge and is available only in electronic form. To subscribe, send the message "subscribe ala- wo [your name]" to listserv@uicvm (Bitnet) or listserv@uicvm.uic.edu (Internet). Back issues and other documents are available from the listserv the list server. To find out what's available, send the message "send ala-wo filelist" to the listserv. The ALA-WO filelist contains the list of files with the exact filename and filetype. To get a particular file, issue the command "send filename filetype" to the listserv. Do not include the quotes in your commands. All materials in the newsletter subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. For other reprinting or redistribution, address requests to the ALA Washington Office (alawash@alawash.org). ****End File****************End File*****************End File**** *****************************************************************