ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


660

W ashington 
Hotline

Carol C. Henderson

Library programs 
funded for fy 1994— 
No rescissions
On October 22 it was learned 
that education and library 
programs w ou ld not be on 
the proposed rescission list 
for defunding as part o f Vice 
President G ore’s “reinventing 
g o vern m en t” initiative. A ll 
Higher Education Act library 
programs w ere on a list o f 
som e 40 education programs 
w h ic h  th e P resid en t w as 
abou t to ask C ongress to 
defund (e v en  as Congress was com pleting ac­
tion to fund them). H ow ever, a last-minute de­
cision to take all Department o f  Education pro­
grams o ff the rescission request list was made 
at the W hite House.

Funding of library programs

P rog ram FY 93 F Y 9 4  A dm in. F Y 9 4
(amounts in thousands) A p p ro p . R equest Ap p ro p.

Higher Education Act $ 18,425 0 $17,443
II-A, college library tech. 3,873 0 3,873
II-B, library education 4,960 0 4,960
0-B, research & demonstrations 2,802 0 2,802
II-C, research libraries 5,808 0 5,808
VI sec 607, foreign research

*materials 982 0
This program may be hinded at Dept, oi Education discretion, as part ot HE

VI, International Education, but is no longer specified for funding by Congress

Library Services &
Construction Act $128,626 $114,700 $128,866
I, public library services 83,227 95,000 83,227
II, pub. lib. construction 16,584 0 17,792
III, interlibrary cooperation 19,749 19,749 19,749
IV, Indian library services 2% o f LSCA I, II, and III
V, foreign language materials 968 0 0
VI, library literacy programs 8,098 0 8,098

GPO Supert. o f Documents 29,082 33,707 29,082
Natl. Center for Educ. Statistics 77,850 125,000 77,850
NCLIS 889 90 904
Library o f Congress 334,316 364,352 331,864
National Agricultural Library 17,715 17,915 18,155
National Archives 160,045 189,182 190,232
Natl. Endowment for the Arts 174,460 174,593 170,228
Natl. Endowment for Humanities 177,413 177,491 177,491
Natl. Hist. Pubs. & Records Com. 5,000 4,000 5,250
National Library o f Medicine 116,743 116,979 119,981
(incl. Medical Lib. Asst. Act)

A 
.

Playing a key role in this 
decision was the Commit­
tee for Education Funding, 
a coalition in w h ich  ALA 
participates. CEF held a se­
ries o f meetings with m em­
bers o f  the administration 
and Congress in attempts to 
reverse the proposed rescis­
sions. Constituent letters o f 
protest w ere also helpful. 
The administration asked Con­
gress to rescind programs 
from  other agencies, and 
congressional amendments 

designed to enlarge and deepen  the budget 
cuts could still threaten library programs.

Funding action completed
Even though a potential rescission request was 

threatening, Congress pro­
vided strong support for 
HEA and LSCA library 
programs. The two small­
est programs (H E A and 
LSCA support fo r for-
eign-language materials) 
w ere not funded. But, 
th an ks to  Sen. M ark 
H atfield (R -O R ), funds 
for the LSCA public li­
brary construction pro­
gram  w e re  increased. 
Both House and Senate 
have w rapped up final 
action on H.R. 2518, the 
Labor, Health and Hu­
man Services, and Edu­
cation  A p p ro p ria tion s 
Bill for FY 1994, which 
was signed into law (PL 
103-112) on October 21. 
Amounts for Department 
o f Education library pro­
grams are shown in the 
sidebar, to geth er with 
funding results for se­
lected other programs. ■

Carol C. Henderson is dep­
uty executive director o f 
ALA’s Washington Office, 
bitnet: cch@alawash.org

mailto:cch@alawash.org