Flannery, 'Washington Report', LITA Newsletter v14n04
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/lita/lita-v14n04-flannery-washington

[v14n4.washrep litanews]
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Washington Report
Patrick Flannery

On June 25, the Office of Management and Budget issued a revised ver-
sion of OMB Circular A-130 (Management of Federal Information Re-
sources) with new language that encourages federal agencies to use
electronic technologies to improve public access to federal informa-
tion. Specifically, A-130 puts electronic products under the same pol-
icy as print and audiovisual materials. In addition, the circular for
the first time mandates the distribution of electronic resources
through the Federal Depository Program, incorporating language that
ALA, through its Washington Office, had strongly advocated throughout
the revision process. The LITA Board endorsed this language at Midwin-
ter in Denver. The document is available on the Internet via anonymous
FTP from nis.nsf.net as /omb/omb.a130.rev2.
   The House Appropriations Committee on June 24 approved H.R. 2519,
an FY94 appropriations bill that includes funding for the Department
of Commerce. Included is a recommendation for $21,746,000 for a grant
program under the National Telecommunications and Information Admini-
stration for national information infrastructure demonstration grants
(this falls short of the $51 million recommended by the Clinton Admini-
stration). An accompanying report (H.Rept. 103-157) supports enactment
of a separate information infrastructure grant program authorization;
the proposed funding would be provided under existing authorities for
telecommunications grant programs.
   The ALA Washington Office has released a fact sheet on the status
of several networking applications bills in Congress. Primary among
these are H.R. 1757 (the High Performance Computing and High Speed Net-
working Applications Act of 1993) and S. 4 (the National Competitive-
ness Act). In New Orleans the LITA Board endorsed resolution CD 27.13,
sponsored by the Committee on Legislation and passed by ALA Council on
June 30, 1993, which expressed a strong preference for H.R. 1757 and
called for the removal of certain provisions of S. 4, such as those re-
lating to governmental operation of data communications networks and
to the timetable for experimental networks, and for substitution of
the more flexible provisions of H.R. 1757 covering these areas.