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LSCA-LSTA
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- Subject: LSCA-LSTA
- From: Richard Boyden <richard.boyden@sanbruno.nara.gov>
- Date: Tue, 01 Oct 1996 12:34:48 -0400
- Message-Id: <s2513b55.032@gpwsmtp.arch2.nara.gov>
- Sender: owner-bap@lists.Stanford.EDU
This message was forwarded by Karen Mokrzycki of UC Santa Cruz:
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ALAWON Volume 5, Number 69
ISSN 1069-7799 September 30, 1996
American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
In this issue: (159 lines)
LSTA ADDED TO OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS BILL
FINAL FUNDING BILL INCLUDES LIBRARY PROGRAM INCREASE
RELATIONSHIP OF LSCA APPROPRIATIONS TO LSTA
_________________________________________________________________
LSTA ADDED TO OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS BILL
In final negotiations Friday night and early Saturday
morning, September 27-28, congressional leaders added the Library
Services and Technology Act (LSTA) to the conference report on H.R.
3610, the omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year 1997. This is the
version of LSTA earlier agreed to by House-Senate conferees on H.R.
1617, the "Careers" Act. It's the same version passed by voice vote by
the House on September 24 in H.R. 1720 and on September 27 in S.
1972.
On Saturday, September 28 the House agreed to the conference report
on H.R. 3610, the mammoth bill funding several government agencies and
containing many reauthorizations and other provisions, by a vote of
370-37. The Senate is expected to approve H.R. 3610 today, September
30; the President is expected to sign this measure promptly.
During three days and nights of intense negotiations by a small group of
congressional and White House leaders, the fate of LSTA was touch
and go. It once seemed to be in the mix, then out, and finally in. In the
end LSTA was apparently on a list of items approved by House Speaker
Newt Gingrich (R-GA). Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) had
also assured library constituents that he would do all he could to help.
Other key players in the overall negotiations were the chairs of the
Appropriations Committees--Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-OR) and Rep. Bob
Livingston (R-LA). White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta led
negotiations for the Administration.
The leaders of the House Economic and Educational Opportunities
Committee and of the Senate Education, Arts, and Humanities
Subcommittee also deserve credit for their attempts to place LSTA in the
omnibus measure or to find alternatives for final passage.
The final version of H.R. 3610 is more than 2,000 pages long. We will
report in more detail after Senate action and as we see the authoritative
version actually enacted.
Many thanks to all library advocates and especially to library constituents
in key states and districts who responded on short notice to our calls for
grassroots assistance.
_________________________________________________________________
FINAL FUNDING BILL INCLUDES LIBRARY PROGRAM INCREASE
The FY97 funding bill that would normally include
education and library programs was rolled into the mammoth omnibus
appropriations measure now awaiting final action by the Senate.
Administration and congressional leaders agreed on figures for library
programs that are higher than either the House-passed or the Senate
committee approved levels.
The Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA) title I would receive
an increase of $8 million above current levels. It was understood that
the House would agree to the higher library program levels approved by
the Senate Appropriations Committee. However, late in the negotiations
the Secretary of Education indicated that as part of the Administration's
insistence on more funding for education, the library account should
receive additional funds beyond what congressional negotiators had
already agreed to provide.
In a conversation with ALA President Mary Somerville, Secretary
Richard Riley indicated that he had literacy and reading programs in mind
for the new library funds, consistent with the President's recently
announced literacy initiative aimed at improving the reading skills of
children by third grade. However, the Secretary did not specify which
library program or title Congress should add these funds.
By adding $8 million to LSCA I for improvement of public library services,
congressional negotiators placed an increase in a flexible program under
which many library programs for children and for literacy efforts can be
(and already are) funded. The levels approved for library programs in
H.R. 3610, the omnibus appropriations bill, are as follows:
PROGRAM FY 1996 ADMIN. FY97 HSE. FY97 SEN. FY97 (in
thousands) APPROP. REQ.FY97 PASSED COMMITTEE HR 3610
LSCA I $ 92,636 --- $ 92,636 $ 92,636 $100,636
LSCA II 16,369 --- 0 16,369 16,369
LSCA III 18,000 --- 11,864 11,864 11,864
HEA II-B ed/tr 2,500 --- 2,500 2,500 2,500
HEA II-B R&D 3,000 1,000 5,000 5,000
Undistributed $110,000 TOTAL $132,505 $110,000
$108,000 $128,369 $136,369
The levels in the last column were passed by the House on
September 28 when it approved the conference report on H.R. 3610 by a
vote of 370-37. The Senate is expected to pass the measure on
September 30. Many other programs of interest to libraries are included
in this measure. More information will be provided once we have
analyzed this bill of more than 2,000 pages.
_________________________________________________________________
RELATIONSHIP OF LSCA APPROPRIATIONS TO LSTA
H.R. 3610 does two things regarding library
programs. First, it appropriates funds for FY97 (beginning October 1,
1996) under the Library Services and Construction Act and the Higher
Education Act(LSCA) title II as they exist in FY96. Second, it also
renews and reorganizes those programs as the Library Services and
Technology Act (LSTA), to be administered by an Institute of Museum
and Library Services rather than the Department of Education. The LSTA
language renews and preserves a changed form of LSCA and puts the
new program on the law books for six years.
LSTA takes effect in FY97. However, FY97 will clearly be a year of
transition from LSCA and HEA II to LSTA. Several provisions in the LSTA
language enable the Department of Education and the Office of
Management and Budget to transfer funds to the Institute of Museum and
Library Services, and to take other steps to effect a transition to the new
arrangement.
Further, the specific appropriations language in H.R. 3610 provides funds
for the current LSCA titles, notwithstanding the language elsewhere in
the bill establishing LSTA. The appropriations language also states:
...each State or local recipient of funds under titles
I, II, III, and IV of the Library Services and
Construction Act may use any such funds to plan for any
library program or activity authorized under...[LSTA]
and conduct any other activity reasonably necessary to
provide for an orderly and effective transition to the
operation of library programs or activities
under...[LSTA].
_________________________________________________________________
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