ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


620 IC&RL News ■ O ctober 2003

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

Groups dem and public voice on Hom e­
land Security procedures
O n August 2 6 ,2003,75 organizations represent­
ing librarians, journalists, scientists, environmen­
tal groups, privacy advocates, and others sent a 
letter to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge 
calling on the Department o f Homeland Secu­
rity (DHS) to allow public input on procedures 
for “safeguarding” and sharing a vaguely defined 
set o f information between firefighters, police 
officers, public health researchers and federal, 
state, and local governments.

The letter asks Ridge to release a draft ver­
sion o f the new procedures, which would not 
themselves contain classified information, for 
the public to comment on. It also requests that 
DHS address public comments in writing a fi­
nal version. The letter expresses concern that 
the procedures may cut a broad swath o f in­
formation out o f the public domain, including 
such items as maps o f environmental contami­
nation, that is not classified but which may be 
perceived  as “helpful to a terrorist or p oten ­
tially helpful in responding to or preventing an 
unknown future attack.”

The signatories are also concerned that the 
procedures would subject millions o f persons 
inside and outside o f governm ent to nondis­
closure agreements and impose criminal penal­
ties for disclosing information improperly. The 
procedures could, moreover, cut out the abil­
ity o f journalists, community groups, and oth­
ers to inform  the p u blic o f activities o f  fed ­
eral, state and local governments.

The law that created DHS, the Homeland 
Security Act, included a provision that required 
the federal government to safeguard and share 
“homeland security information” with govern­
m ent officials, p u blic health  profession als, 
firefighters, and others in order to respond to a 
terrorist attack. But, un der the au sp ices o f 
fighting terrorism , DHS is p o ised  to w rite, 
without guarantees for public input, procedures 
that could sweep up otherwise publicly avail-

Lynne E. Bradley is Office of Government Relations director 
o f ALA's Washington Office, e-mail: leb@aiawash.org

able information that has nothing to do with 
terrorism into a zone o f secrecy, while subject­
ing millions of Americans to confidentiality agree­
ments.

Reed A m e n d m e n t fails
O n September 10, 2003, Senator Ja c k  R eed ’s 
(D-Rhode Island) amendment to the Senate Ap­
propriations bill failed to pass the Senate. Reed’s 
amendment would have added $35 million for 
libraries to the Appropriations bill, bringing 
the amount for Improving Literacy Through 
School Libraries program to the president’s re­
qu est o f  $27.5 m illion. It w ould have also 
added enough money to LSTA to fund the new 
LSTA formula as well as to fund Native Ameri­
can and Hawaiian American allocations.

Reed offered the amendment on the Senate 
floor, and it was voted down by a count o f 47 
yeas and 49 nays. A list o f senators who voted 
for and against the amendment can be found in 
ALAWON V o lu m e  1 2 , n u m b e r  8 0  at 
www.ala.org/washoff/alawon.

Please thank your senators if they voted 
for the amendment, and remind all senators of 
the vital im portance o f libraries to our com ­
munities and our children. Please also reiterate 
the need for the higher House numbers for li­
brary programs.

We appreciate the efforts o f all those w ho 
m ade calls or sen t faxes on  this im portant 
amendment. The funds appropriated for the 
Literacy Through School libraries program and 
the library and museum programs in the Mu­
seum and Library Services Act are higher in the 
FY2004 bill as approved by the House than in 
the Sen ate bill. W h en  th e tw o b ills are 
conferenced, there will b e a greater difference.

Note: Your efforts will still b e needed after 
the Senate bill passes and the bills go to 
c o n fe re n c e. We will pu blish th e nam es o f 
c o n ferees w h en  they are ann ou nced, how ­
ever, usually con ferees are m em bers o f  the 
Labor HHS Edu cation Appropriations Sub­
com m ittees, as w ell as the two chairs o f 
the full Senate and H ouse Appropriations 
Com m ittees. Stay tuned to ALAWON for all 
the up com ing new s and details. ■

mailto:leb@aiawash.org
http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon


C&RL News ■ October 2003 / 621