ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


M ay 1983 /  161

W A S H I N G T O N  H O T L I N E by Carol C. Henderson 
Deputy Director 

ALA Washington Office

Social Security Reform. Higher education lobbying groups discovered to 
their surprise that a House-passed social security reform measure (HR 1900) 
would have required payment of Social Security taxes on contributions to the 
TIAA/CREF pension plan used by many campuses (and by ALA). Not a recommendation 
of the National Commission on Social Security Reform on which HR 1900 was based, 
the provision was apparently a last-minute staff addition, and its ramifications 
were not clear until after House passage. Fortunately, on the Senate side the 
provision was dropped, thanks to intensive work by the American Council on Edu­
cation. and other groups, and to an amendment in Senate Finance Committee by Sen. 
Daniel Moynihan (D-NY). The Senate passed the bill March 23 without the provis­
ion, and the next day House-Senate conferees took the Senate approach.

Under current law, pension contributions are not taxed for Social Security 
if they are involuntary contributions and if they do not exceed a certain amount 
defined by law. The House version would have required employers and employees 
to pay Social Security taxes on all pension contributions, whether or not em­
ployees could opt to receive the money as wages. In other provisions of HR 1900, 
state government agencies can no longer opt out of the Social Security system; 
those which have withdrawn have the option to rejoin. Beginning January 1, 1984, 
educational institutions and nonprofit organizations must participate.

Import Duties Lifted. U.S. import duties on a variety of educational mater­
ials have been removed by President Reagan for a trial period of 30 months. The 
Presidential Proclamation (Feb. 16 Federal Register, pp. 6883-85) affects mater­
ials and equipment for the blind and physically handicapped, scientific appara­
tus, and all audio, visual, and microform materials, such as films, records, 
videotapes, computer software, and microfiche. The Proclamation was issued in 
response to Senate approval as an international treaty in May 1982 of the Nairobi 
Protocol to the Florence Agreement and to the passage of the Educational, Scien­
tific and Cultural Materials Importation Act (PL 97-446) signed by President 
Reagan on January 12, 1983.

The 30-month trial period authorized by the Act is designed to encourage 
other countries to adhere to the Protocol and its more liberal option, Annex Cl 
relating to audio, visual, and microform materials. By using Cl, a country drops 
all import barriers to U.S. and other instructional materials. A number of 
countries including members of the European Economic Community have already ap­
plied the Protocol, but only on audio, visual, and microform materials certifiec 
to be of an educational, scientific, or cultural nature and imported by desig­
nated nonprofit institutions.

The Protocol contains a number of other improvements over the original 
Florence Agreement. One of the most important for libraries in countries where 
foreign exchange is controlled and limited was suggested by IFLA. Article IV 
of the Protocol, which is optional, requires that import licenses and/or foreigr 
exchange be made available for the importation of books and publications by the 
following types of libraries: national, research, academic, public, school, 
special, hospital, prison, and for the blind.

So far, the U.S. has not formally adopted the Protocol, which has to be done 
by depositing it with the United Nations, but all steps prior to that have been 
completed. The formal depositing at the U.N. is being delayed in the hope that 
other countries will reciprocate the President's Proclamation. These developments 
help to implement one of the resolutions of the White House Conference on Library 
and Information Science.