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April 2012  223 C&RL News

Corey Williams is assistant director, ALA Office of 
Government Relations, e-mail: cwilliams@alawash.org

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n eCorey Williams

President Obama’s budget
In February, President Barack Obama 
released his FY2013 budget request to 
Congress, communicating his priorities for 
the upcoming fiscal year. In his budget, the 
President requested level funding, or the 
FY2012 amount of $184.7 million, for the 
Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). 

While the FY2013 budget request does 
not reflect a decline, it is worth noting that 
from FY2010 to FY2012 funding for LSTA 
was cut by 13.5 percent. LSTA funds are 
distributed via the Institute of Museum and 
Library Services (IMLS) to public, academic, 
research, school, and special libraries in 
every state. 

Next, Congress will take the President’s 
FY 2013 budget request and work to pass 
an appropriations bill before the fiscal year 
draws to a close at the end of September. 
However, since it is an election year, the 
exact timeline or passage of an appropria-
tions bill is unclear. 

For additional information on fed-
eral funding for libraries, including the 
President’s FY 2013 appropriations bud-
get and updates, please see www.ala.org 
/advocacy/libfunding/fed/.

Research Works Act abandoned
The lifespan of the anti-open access bill 
introduced in December 2011 and reported 
in the February 2012 Washington Hotline, 
the Research Works Act (H.R. 3699), has 
proven to be short-lived. In late February, 
the publishing company Elsevier (rumored 
backer of the bill) publically announced it 
was withdrawing support for the bill—es-
sentially rendering the bill dead. In addition, 
the bill’s cosponsors, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) 
and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) released 

a joint statement indicating they would no 
long be taking legislative action on the bill. 

On a related note, ALA continues to 
strongly support passage of pro-open ac-
cess legislation—the Federal Research Public 
Access Act (FRPAA) of 2012 (S. 2096, H.R. 
4004). Additional information on these 
bills is available at www.ala.org/advocacy 
/access-legislation. 

Madison Award winner announced
This year’s ALA James Madison Award was 
presented to Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) at the 
annual Freedom of Information Day Forum 
on March 16, 2012, in Washington, D.C. 
Since 1994, Lofgren has served as a Demo-
cratic member of the U.S. House of Repre-
sentatives from the 16th district of California, 
which includes the city of San Jose (aptly 
nicknamed the “Capitol of Silicon Valley”). 
Lofgren has long been, and continues to 
be, a champion for libraries and those they 
serve and is highly regarded by the library 
community for her work on copyright, digital 
rights, network neutrality, and open access 
to information, among other issues. 

In addition, Lofgren does not shy away 
from tough legislative issues, as demon-
strated during the U.S. House Judiciary Com-
mittee’s recent mark-up on H.R. 3261, the 
Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). During the 
lively debate, the Congresswoman called at-
tention to the potential harm the bill would 
inflict on First Amendment free speech 
rights, intellectual freedom, cybersecurity, 
and privacy rights, and was instrumental 
in ultimately halting further action being 
taken on the bill.

The James Madison Award is named for 
President James Madison and is awarded 
annually to an individual or group who 
has championed, protected, and promoted 
public access to government information and 
the public’s “right to know.”