july05c.indd


Ber nadette Murphy W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n e  

House appropriators announce library 
funding levels 
The House Labor, Health and Human Servic­
es, Education and Related Agencies Appropri­
ations Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction 
over several library programs, recommended 
funding levels for fiscal year 2006 on June 9. 

The subcommittee’s recommendation in­
cluded an overall funding level of $249,640,000 
for the Institute of Museum and Library Ser­
vices (IMLS). Within that total, the subcommit­
tee recommended that the Library Services and 
Technology Act (LSTA) receive $212,650,000, 
an increase of $6,699,000 over last year, but 
$8,675 below President Bush’s budget re­
quest. Within that total is $165.5 million for 
Grants to State Library Agencies, $24 million 
for Librarians for the 21st Century program, 
$12.5 million for National Leadership Grants 
for libraries, and $3.5 million for Improving 
Library Service to Native Americans. 

For school libraries, the House proposes 
$19,683,264 for the Improving Literacy Through 
School Libraries program, the same level as the 
President’s request and fiscal year 2005. 

Similar to the President’s budget request, 
many education programs are level funded, 
some are cut and several programs are 
eliminated entirely, including the Community 
Technology Centers. 

However, some of the programs that the 
President proposed for elimination in his FY 
06 budget were partially restored, like the 
Even Start family literacy program, which was 
funded at $200 million. Also, adult education 
and Title V funding, which were severely cut, 
were restored to their FY05 level of $585.4 
million and $198.4 million respectively. 

ALA, along with 117 Members of Congress, 
had requested that the House and Senate 
Appropriations Committees fund LSTA at 
President Bush’s request of $221.33 million 
and $100 million for the Improving Literacy 

Bernadette Murphy is communications specialist at ALA’s 
Washington Offi  ce, e-mail: bmurphy@alawash.org 

Through School Libraries program—the level 
of funding necessary to initiate formula grants 
to all states. 

While ALA is pleased with the almost $7 
million increase proposed for LSTA, we will 
continue to work with the House and Senate 
Appropriations Committees to increase fund­
ing for America’s school libraries. 

National Library Legislative Day 2005 a 
success! 
The legislative day events provide an im­
portant opportunity for each participant to 
educate Senators and Representatives about 
all the terrific programs at your library and 
on issues that are important to the larger li­
brary community. Your Congressional repre­
sentatives want to know how libraries and 
library programs impact the lives of their con­
stituents; your participation in this important 
event ensures that they do. 

FOLUSA gave its annual public service 
award this year to Representative Ralph Regula 
(R­16th OH), who was honored for his support 
of libraries at the Congressional Reception. 
Also, Representative Bernie Sanders (I­VT) 
spoke at the reception about the importance 
of safeguarding privacy rights from the provi­
sions of the USA PATRIOT Act that encroach 
on civil liberties. 

You can view copies of the issue summaries 
from the legislative briefing day on the ALA 
Washington Office Web site at www.ala.org 
/ala/washoff/washevents/nlld/nationallibrary. 
htm. Mark your calendars for next year’s Na­
tional Library Legislative Day, May 1–2, 2006. 

Did you participate in Virtual Library 
Legislative Day? 
If you organized a virtual library legisla­
tive day in your state, please let us know so 
that we can recognize your efforts to sup­
port libraries. Please e­mail Erin Haggerty at 
ehaggerty@alawash.org, and include your 
name and contact information, your state, and 
the number of participants in your group. 

July/August 2005  535 C&RL News 

mailto:ehaggerty@alawash.org
http:www.ala.org
mailto:bmurphy@alawash.org