may14_b.indd


C&RL News May 2014 276

Jazzy Wright is press officer of the ALA Washington 
Office, e-mail: jwright@alawash.org

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n eJazzy Wright

House budget dismisses role of IMLS
In a new budget released from Representative 
Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin), the House Budget 
Committee chairman denounced the critical 
role that the Institute of Museum and Library 
Services (IMLS) plays in supporting civic en-
gagement, literacy, and lifelong learning in 
more than 123,000 libraries nationwide. Ryan 
recommends that the federal government not 
have a role in libraries and that Congress shift 
the federal agency’s responsibilities to the 
private sector in his 2015 fiscal year budget 
resolution. More than $180 million has been 
appropriated to IMLS through September 
2014 to help libraries make information and 
services available to the citizens they serve. 
ALA’s President Barbara Stripling released a 
statement in response to Ryan’s unfortunate 
budget proposal (see www.ala.org/news 
/node/10177).

ALA joins Internet Archive in filing 
Supreme Court amicus brief
In March, ALA and the Internet Archive 
joined forces to file a “friend of the court” 
brief in David Leon Riley v. State of Califor-
nia and United States v. Brima Wurie, two 
Apellate cases joined at the Supreme Court 
to examine the constitutionality of cell phone 
searches without a warrant after police ar-
rests. In the amicus brief, both nonprofit or-
ganizations argue that warrantless cell phone 
searches violate privacy principles protected 
by the Fourth Amendment.

ALA honors leaders with Freedom of 
Information awards
During the 16th Annual Freedom of Informa-
tion Day in Washington, D.C., ALA awarded 
the James Madison Award to President 
Obama’s Review Group on Intelligence and 

Communications Technologies, the body of 
intelligence and legal experts tasked with 
assessing U.S. surveillance practices. The 
James Madison Award honors, celebrates, and 
recognizes groups and individuals who have 
championed for public access to government 
information. Additionally, ALA awarded the 
grassroots advocacy Eileen Cooke Award to 
the Open Government Project of the Ameri-
can Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey. ALA 
Immediate Past President Maureen Sullivan 
presented the awards at the Freedom of In-
formation Day event.

Congress introduces harmful open 
access act
In March, Representatives Lamar Smith (R-
Texas) and Larry Bucshon (R-Indiana) intro-
duced the Frontiers in Innovation, Research, 
Science and Technology [FIRST] Act, H.R. 
4186, a bill that challenges public access to 
tax-payer funded research. ALA joined 15 
other organizations in a letter to Smith and 
Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson of 
the House of Representatives’ Committee on 
Science, Space and Technology expressing 
opposition to Section 303 of the FIRST Act. 

E-rate advocacy continues
In March, the Federal Communications Com-
mission (FCC) dived into rural broadband 
needs and challenges during an all-day 
workshop that took place in Washington, 
D.C. The workshop brought together educa-
tors, decision makers, policy and technology 
experts, and telecommunications leaders to 
help the FCC generate policies that will im-
pact high-speed Internet deployment in rural, 
high-cost areas. Maine State Librarian Linda 
Lord discussed the role of libraries in rural 
communities on a panel highlighting the criti-
cal need for high-speed broadband in rural 
areas for individual consumers, businesses, 
and community anchor organizations.