----------------------------Original message----------------------------
The Chair of GODORT and the Chair of the GODORT Legislation Committee have
requested that the NAAN (national action alert network) be activated. Below
is a summary of pending legislation that needs to be broadcast to all parties
interested in government information and the FDLP. Please contact me with any
questions. All NAAN volunteers must contact me regarding receipt of this info
by Tuesday, June 13. Since I am on vacation, please either e-mail me
([log in to unmask]) or call me at home.
Aimee Piscitelli, Coordinator of the NAAN
June 9, 1995
TO: Depository Library Community
FROM: Mary Redmond, Chair, Government Documents Round Table of the
American Library Association
RE: GPO Appropriations Legislative Alert
ACTION REQUIRED IMMEDIATELY: information must be received by members of
the House Appropriations Committee prior to Thursday, JUNE 15th.
BACKGROUND: The Legislative Branch Subcommittee of the House
Appropriations Committee held a mark-up session on June 8th on the FY 1996
Legislative Branch Appropriations. The Subcommittee proposes that the
appropriation for the Superintendent of Documents be cut by HALF from
this year's appropriation. The Public Printer's original request was
$30.3 million for Salaries and Expenses to support depository library
distribution and the cataloging and indexing of government information.
FY 95 appropriation was $32.2 million, with $18.67 million going to
printing and reproduction for depository libraries. The Markup reduced
the overall appropriation to $16.3 for FY 96, with only $5.5 million for
printing and reproduction for depositories.
Instead of GPO funding the printing and distribution, the executive
agencies will pay for it. Agencies will be required to reimburse GPO for
cost of printing and distributing paper documents, which the Subcom. hopes
will encourage agencies to use electronic format. The Appropriations
Committee will hold a hearing on the Legislative Branch Appropriations on
Thursday, July 15th, and plan to move the legislation to the floor on June
20th.
This fifty per cent reduction would destroy the viability of the
depository library program. There are provisions on the books now for
agencies, when they print publications outside GPO, to pay for the extra
copies that should go to depositories. Most of the time, agencies flout
this law, creating an ever-increasing problem of fugitive documents. The
agencies are under increasing pressure to save money, and this measure
will provide a tremendous incentive to not provide information through the
depository library program. With this change, Congress is disassociating
itself from its historic commitment to providing access to government
information. Further, this funding change is a major change in information
policy that should not be undertaken without study and hearings.
*The effect of this reduction is to make far less information available
through the Depository Library Program. Publications will not be
distributed throughout the country, made accessible through cataloging, and
preserved.
*Library costs to seek out and to catalog what are now fugitive documents
will greatly increase.
*GPO Access is funded on cost savings from the GPO's distribution of
publications. With this reduction, GPO will no longer be able to support
and expand the resources of GPO Access.
*A precipitous shift to electronic only dissemination for government
information will place unrealistic demands on limited library resources
and could severely limit access for the public.
This last point reflects a stated goal of the Legislative Branch
Subcommittee, which is to encourage agencies to publish electronically in
order to save money. GODORT has addressed before the need to provide
information to Members of Congress on this issue. Electronic access
points, such as THOMAS and the White House web site have been highly
publicized. However, electronic formats of information are not yet
accessible to a majority of the population and still represent only a
small portion of all federal information. While there are certainly
potential savings for producing and disseminating some information in
electronic format, our library users still rely heavily on printed
materials. There are still many issues, during this transition from
printed to electronic information, to be resolved. Many libraries still
lack adequate equipment to access electronic information, significant
costs are transferred to the library and the user for printing the
information retrieved electronically, and there are not yet adequate
provisions for preserving and providing bibliographic access to electronic
information.
In the markup hearing, members were aware that this proposal is a radical
change, and specifically noted that the (full) Appropriations Committee
needs to hear from the library community.
ACTION REQUIRED: Please review the list of members of the House
Appropriations Committee attached to this letter.
1) If your representative is a member of the Legislative Branch
Subcommittee (Representatives Thornton (Ark.), Packard (CA), Dixon (CA),
Fazio (CA), Young (FL), Miller (FL), Wicker (Miss.) Taylor(NC), of the
Appropriations Committee, call or fax immediately: Tell your
representative on the Legislative Branch Subcom. how disappointed you are
in the fifty percent reduction in appropriations for the Depository
Library Program, explaining how important this program is to your library
and its users. Ask your representative to support an amendment that
would restore $16 million to the Superintendent of Documents Salaries and
Expenses appropriation for FY96, for the reasons outlined above.
2) If your Representative is a member of the full Appropriations
Committee, contact him or her immediately: Request support for an
amendment that would restore $16 million to the Superintendent of
Documents Salaries and Expenses appropriation for FY96, for the reasons
outlined above.
3) If your representative is not a member of the Appropriations Committee,
contact your own representative immediately: Ask your representative to
request his or her colleagues on the Appropriations Committee to restore
the $16 million cut from the Superintendent of Documents Salaries and
Expenses appropriation for FY96, for the reasons outlined above.
House Appropriations Committee
ST Representative (Party) Phone Fax E-Mail
== ========================== ======== ======== ============
Area Code 202 @hr.house.gov
Chairman
LA Livingston, Robert (R) 225-3015 225-0739
AL Bevill, Thomas (D) 225-4876 225-1604
AL Callahan, Sonny (R) 225-4931 225-0562
AR Dickey, Jay (R) 225-3772 225-1314 jdickey
AR Thornton, Raymond (D) 225-2506 225-9273
AZ Kolbe, James T. (R) 225-2542 225-0378
CA Dixon, Julian C. (D) 225-7084 225-4091
CA Fazio, Vic (D) 225-5716 225-5141
CA Lewis, Jerry (R) 225-5861 225-6498
CA Packard, Ronald (R) 225-3906 225-0134 rpackard
CA Pelosi, Nancy (D) 225-4965 225-8259 sfnancy
CA Riggs, Frank (R) 225-3311 225-7710
CA Torres, Esteban E. (D) 225-5256 225-9711
CO Skaggs, David E. (D) 225-2161 225-9127 skaggs
FL Miller, Dan (R) 225-5015 226-0828
FL Young, C. W. (R) 225-5961 225-9764
GA Kingston, Jack (R) 225-5831 226-2269
IA Lightfoot, James R. (R) 225-3806 225-6973
IL Durbin, Richard J. (D) 225-5271 225-0170 durbin
IL Porter, John E. (R) 225-4835 225-0157
IL Yates, Sidney R. (D) 225-2111 225-3493
IN Myers, John T. (R) 225-5805 225-1649
IN Visclosky, Peter J. (D) 225-2461 225-2493
KY Rogers, Harold (R) 225-4601 225-0940
MD Hoyer, Steny H. (D) 225-4131 225-4300
MI Knollenberg, Joe (R) 225-5802 226-2356
MN Sabo, Martin O. (D) 225-4755 225-4886
MS Wicker, Roger (R) 225-4306 225-3549
NC Hefner, W. G. "Bill" (D) 225-3715 225-4036
NC Taylor, Charles Hart (R) 225-6401 225-0519 chtaylor
NJ Frelinghuysen, Rodney (R) 225-5034 225-0658
NM Skeen, Joseph (R) 225-2365 225-9599
NV Vucanovich, Barbara (R) 225-6155 225-2319
NY Forbes, Michael 225-3826 225-3143 mforbes
NY Lowey, Nita M. (D) 225-6506 225-0546
NY Walsh, James T. (R) 225-3701 225-4042
OH Hobson, David L. (R) 225-4324 225-1984
OH Kaptur, Marcy (D) 225-4146 225-7711
OH Regula, Ralph (R) 225-3876 225-3059
OH Stokes, Louis (D) 225-7032 225-1339
OK Istook, Ernest Jim (R) 225-2132 226-1463 istook
OR Bunn, Jim (R) 225-5711 225-2994
PA Foglietta, Thomas M. (D) 225-4731 225-0088
PA McDade, Joseph M. (R) 225-3731 225-9594
PA Murtha, John P. (D) 225-2065 225-5709 Murtha
TX Bonilla, Henry (R) 225-4511 225-2237
TX Chapman, Jim (D) 225-3035 225-7265
TX Coleman, Ronald D. (D) 225-4831 225-4825
TX DeLay, Thomas (R) 225-5951 225-5241
TX Wilson, Charles (D) 225-2401 225-1764 cwilson
VA Wolf, Frank R. (R) 225-5136 225-0437
WA Dicks, Norman D. (D) 225-5916 226-1176
WA Nethercutt, George (R) 225-2006 225-3392
WI Neumann, Mark (R) 225-3031 225-3393
WI Obey, David R. (D) 225-3365 na
WV Mollohan, Alan B. (D) 225-4172 225-7564
All e-mail addresses end with suffix at top of e-mail column.
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