march07c.indd


Andy Bridges W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n e  

EPA Libraries Update 
On February 6, 2007, ALA President Leslie 
Burger testified before the U.S. Senate Environ­
ment and Public Works Committee, chaired by 
Senator Barbara Boxer (D­CA), concerning the 
recent closure of several libraries in the Envi­
ronmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

Burger addressed the EPA’s lack of open­
ness with regard to digitizing its materials. 
“Without more detailed information about the 
EPA’s digitization project, we cannot assess 
whether they are digitizing the most appro­
priate materials, whether there is appropriate 
metadata or cataloging to make sure that 
people can access the digitized materials, and 
that the technology that will be used to host 
the digital content and the fi nding software 
meets today’s standards.” 

This oversight hearing, the first in a series 
looking into EPA’s recent actions, also fea­
tured testimony from EPA Director Stephen 
Johnson, who was grilled by Boxer for his 
lack of knowledge about the libraries. Boxer 
produced several e­mails concerning the dis­
posal of library materials, and as she produced 
each one, slapped it down onto the podium. 
Johnson testified that he had no knowledge of 
these e­mails or of any directives for dispos­
ing of materials, aside from those that were 
duplicates. Boxer gave Johnson one month 
to respond to questions he wasn’t willing or 
able to answer. 

For more information, including Burger’s 
full testimony, please visit www.ala.org 
/epalibraries. Pictures of the testimony are 
available on the ALA Washington Offi ce Flickr 
page at www.fl ickr.com/photos/alawash. 

FY 2007, 2008 budgets 
In February, President Bush signed a bill that 
wraps up fiscal year (FY) 2007 appropria­
tions. In January, the House of Representa­
tives passed the joint funding resolution by a 

Andy Bridges is communications specialist at ALA’s 
Washington Offi  ce, e-mail: abridges@alawash.org 

vote of 286­140. On Wednesday, the Senate 
passed the resolution by a vote of 81­15. The 
resolution passed despite complaints from 
Republicans about being blocked from offer­
ing amendments. 

Democratic leaders decided to package 
together the nine spending bills the 109th 
Congress was unable to pass and use FY 
2006 numbers as a baseline for funding, with 
some exceptions. Several education and health 
programs received an increase, while some 
programs, such as the Library of Congress, 
faced a rescission. The resolution would allow 
$463.5 billion to be spent for the remainder 
of FY 2007, which ends September 30, 2007. 
The Institute of Museum and Library Services 
will be level­funded at FY 2006 levels for the 
remainder of FY 2007. 

Congress will now turn its attention to the 
FY 2008 budget. On February 5, President 
Bush released a $2.9 trillion FY 2008 budget 
request that eliminates or sharply reduces 141 
programs. While the administration requests a 
sharp increase in defense spending, it signifi ­
cantly reduces entitlement spending to meet 
the goal of balancing the budget by 2012. 

Despite the extremely tight fi scal environ­
ment, where many programs are experiencing 
cuts in funding, the President’s request for the 
Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) is 
$226,182,000, an increase of $15,585,000 over 
FY 2006 and an even bigger increase than LSTA 
would have received for FY 2007 if Congress 
had completed FY 2007 appropriations bills. 

We will continue to provide information 
as we review the budget documents. This in­
cludes the budget for EPA libraries, for which 
we await word from EPA. 

Given the budget difficulties, members are 
urged to contact the White House to thank the 
administration for its continued support and 
commitment to our nation’s libraries. You may 
call the White House at (202) 456­1111. 

For more information, please visit ALA 
Washington Office’s Web site at www.ala. 
org/washoff. 

186C&RL News March 2007

mailto:abridges@alawash.org
http:www.ala.org