ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


C&RL News ■  June 1 9 9 8 / 4 4 9

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n e Lynn E. Bradley

Th e  s ta te  o f  th e  H E A
This has been a hectic spring for Congress, 
although many issues remain up in the air as 
political anxieties stir the agenda.

The Higher Education Act reauthorization 
(HEA) c o n tin u e s to m ove th ro u g h  b o th  
houses of Congress. The House passed H.R. 
6; the Senate version, S. 1882, has now  been 
reported out of committee, but the bill has 
not gone to the Senate floor. Once the Sen­
ate passes S. 1882, the House-Senate confer­
ence committee will start w ork with the act, 
almost assuredly being passed before the end 
of this congressional session. The focus of 
HEA remains on student aid and related fi­
nance issues. Conferees will have to agree 
on w hether to decrease the student local in­
terest rates, w hether to increase Pell grant 
limits by $100, and similar student aid issues.

In te rn a tio n a l in fo rm a tio n  a cce ss
H.R. 6 did include a provision as part of Title 
VI on the international studies initiatives, which 
would replace the current program for peri­
odical and other research materials published 
outside of the United States with a new tech­
nological innovation and cooperation for a 
foreign information access program. The pur­
pose of the program is to develop innovative 
techniques or programs using new electronic 
technologies to collect, organize, preserve, and 
widely disseminate information on world re­
gions and countries that address critical areas 
the nation’s teaching and research needs in 
international education and foreign languages.

In te lle c tu a l p ro p e r ty  le g is la tio n
Intellectual property legislation remains active 
on at least two fronts: The World Intellectual 
Property Organization (WIPO) Treaty Imple­
mentation legislation was approved by the full 
Senate (S. 2037) in mid-May and cleared by 
the House Judiciary Committee in early April 
as H.R. 2281. This sets the stage for further 
consideration by the House Commerce Com­
mittee and perhaps the full House of Repre­

Lynne E. Bradley is deputy executive director of ALA's 
Washington Office; e-mail: leb@alawash.org

sentatives in the coming weeks. While changes 
were made in the Senate’s bill to permit the 
use of digital technology to make multiple 
preservation copies of a work, and a Copy­
right Office study was commissioned on up­
dating the Copyright Act’s outdated distance 
education provisions, the Senate’s bill still fails 
to adequately protect and extend fair use into 
the digital network environment. ACRL library 
supporters are urged to contact their member 
of Congress immediately and ask that they: 
oppose H.R. 2281 and cosponsor H.R. 3048, 
library-friendly legislation by Reps. Rick 
Boucher (D-Virginia) and Tom Campbell (R- 
California).

D a ta b a s e  p ro te c tio n  le g is la tio n  
h a lte d
Database Protection legislation, with the seri­
ous potential to interfere with research of all 
kinds and impede public access to informa­
tion not entitled to copyright protection, has 
been approved by the House Judiciary Com­
mittee as H.R. 2652 and awaits consideration 
by the full House of Representatives. No com­
parable legislation is pending in the Senate. 
With the active assistance of ACRL, ALA, and 
many others in the public and private sector 
launched a successful campaign to keep this 
bill from coming to the floor on May 12 under 
a procedure usually reserved for noncontro- 
versial legislation. It is certain to be called up 
for a vote again shortly; all library supporters 
are urged to continue contacting their repre­
sentatives in the House to request that they 
oppose H.R. 2652 in substantially the same 
form as reported by the Judiciary Committee.

In cre a se d  f u n d in g  f o r  N A L
The debate on appropriations continues. Here 
also, ACRL members have been most helpful 
in the efforts to assure increased funding for 
the National Agriculture Library (NAL). Its fund­
ing has been essentially frozen for several 
years. There is now an active campaign among 
library supporters and others to seek at least a 
modest $3 million increase in funding for pres­
ervation, digital resource development, as well 
as collection development for NAL.

mailto:leb@alawash.org