MD Senators sign on to LSTA Dear Colleague Letter

Both Senator Mikulski and Senator Cardin signed onto the Dear Colleague letter in support of Library Services & Technology Act (LSTA) funding. The letter asked for the funding to remain flat for FY 2013, as it is currently in the Appropriations bill 

At this point, it is unknown which members of the House may have signed onto a similar letter or whether or not any members of Congress signed onto the Dear Colleague letter in support of the Innovative Approaches to Literacy Grant.

Many thanks to everyone who contacted the Senators to ask for their support!

Action Alert! Dear Colleague letters for LSTA & Literacy

There are two separate Dear Colleague letters circulating in the House and the Senate that support funding for libraries in the FY 2013 Appropriations bill.

1. LSTA Funding – This letter supports level funding for the Library Services & Technology Act (LSTA) in FY 2013. This is the primary source of funding for public libraries in the federal budget. Here are links for the letter for the Representatives and the Senators.
2. Literacy Grant – This letter supports funding already in the Appropriations bill for the Innovative Approaches to Literacy Grant in FY 2013. At least half of this funding is set aside to go to low-income school libraries. Here are links for the letter to the Representatives and the Senators.

Please contact your Senators and Representatives to ask them to sign onto the letters. The deadline for Representatives is March 14^th.  The deadline for Senators is March 26^th. Senator Mikulski has already signed onto the LSTA letter, so please thank her for her support.

For more information, including talking points and how members of Congress can sign onto the letters, please check out the Capwiz Action Alerts for the House and Senate. You can enter your ZIP code to get phone numbers to your elected officials.

Thank you in advance for your support!

Congress passes FY 12 budget bill; includes funding for libraries

Both the Senate and the House have now passed an Omnibus Appropriations Bill and the President is expected to sign it this week. The bill provides funding for libraries, including:

• $28.6 million for literacy, at least half of which must go to low income school libraries.
• $185 million for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).

For more details, see the District Dispatch post.

Again, many thanks to everyone who contacted members of Congress to ask for support of library funding! Votes for the Appropriations bill followed party lines among Maryland’s members of Congress. In the Senate, Mikulski and Cardin both voted for the bill and in the House Cummings, Edwards, Hoyer, Ruppersberger, Sarbanes and Van Hollen voted for the bill. Please feel free to thank these members of Congress for their support of libraries with a phone call or using Capwiz!

House passes Omnibus Appropriations Bill with provisions for school libraries, Senate expected to do the same on Saturday

On Friday, the House passed the Conference Report for an Omnibus Appropriations Bill, which included funds for school libraries.  Thanks to Senator Jack Reed, who had funding included in the Appropriations Bill for Literacy, including a competitive Grant Program for school libraries.

Many thanks to all the school library supporters who called their Representatives over the past two months! The House kept Senator Reed’s program in the Bill and it is now going to the Senate.  They are expected to pass it on Saturday.

Senate Appropriations Committee passes appropriations bill with funds for school libraries & LSTA

On Wednesday, the full Senate Appropriations Committee passed the Labor, Health & Human Services, Education FY 2012 Appropriations bill. The bill includes funding for school libraries and LSTA. See the District Dispatch posting for details.

Again, please thank Senator Mikulski, who voted for the bill, for her support of libraries in this bill. You can either call her office at 202-224-4654 or use Capwiz to send a message.

Subcommittee passes bill with funds for school libraries & LSTA

Good news! The Labor, Health & Human Services and Education Subcommittee voted on its FY 2012 appropriations bill.  The bill passed and includes funding for school libraries and LSTA. See the District Dispatch posting for further details.

9/21/2011 UPDATE: Many thanks to everyone who contacted the Senator!  Mikulski did vote for the bill.  (Votes were along party lines.) Feel free to thank Senator Mikulski for her support via a phone call or using Capwiz!

Action Alert! Contact Mikulski to increase LSTA & ILTSL funding

On Tuesday, the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee will vote on funding for the Library Services & Technology Act (LSTA) and Improving Literacy Through School Libraries (ILTSL) program. Apologies for the late request, but there is still time to contact Senator Mikulski, who serves on this subcommittee, and ask for her support. Personalize your message by telling how these funds help you and/or your library. For more information on how LSTA funds are used in Maryland, see this document.

Mikulski did sign a Dear Colleague Letter in support of LSTA and ILSTL funding for FY 2012 in June.  (See the earlier Legislative Panel’s blog post.)  However, this vote will be for specific funding amounts. See the message below from the American Library Association Washington Office for more details, including how to use Twitter to send a message to subcommittee members.

Thanks in advance for any advocacy efforts!

 

Senate committee increases Appropriations funding for GPO

The Senate’s Legislative Branch Appropriations bill that passed on Thursday has an increase in Government Printing Office (GPO) funding over what was included in the House committee’s bill, the District Dispatch reports. The Senate bill provides $116.8 million, while the House bill includes $108.1 million.

Many thanks to everyone who contacted the Senators to request this increase!

Action Alert! Save funding for GPO, Federal Depository Library Program and FDsys

As Congress works through the Appropriations bill, there are several programs that are at risk of being cut:  the Government Printing Office (GPO), the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and the Federal Digital System (FDsys, which stores and archives all digital government documents).

Please contact your members of Congress and ask them to fund the GPO at the President’s FY 2012 recommendation.  It is critical to stress the value and importance of these programs and resources in providing access to government information.  If you have a story to demonstrate the value, please share that, as well.

For more background information on this issue, see the District Dispatch posting.

For talking points and to get contact information for you representatives in Congress, see the Capwiz Action Alert.

Thank you in advance for any advocacy efforts!

Maryland Senators sign on to LSTA & ILTSL letter!

Senators Mikulski and Cardin have both signed onto the Dear Colleague letter in support of funding for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries (ILTSL) program.  The American Library Association Washington Office confirmed their signatures in their District Dispatch posting.  (For background information on the request, see the Legislative Panel’s blog posting.)

Thank you to everyone who contacted Maryland’s Senators to ask for their support!  These grassroots efforts have certainly made a difference!  Don’t forget to contact the Senators to thank them for their support.  This can be easily done using Capwiz.