feb13_b.indd


C&RL News February 2013 102

Corey Williams is associate director, ALA Office of 
Government Relations, e-mail: cwilliams@alawash.org

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n eCorey Williams

Sequestration delayed
On January 2, 2013, well beyond the 11th 
hour, the U.S. Congress finally passed, and 
President Obama signed into law, H.R. 8, the 
American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. The 
new law steered the country away from the 
“fiscal cliff,” for at least a couple months. 
The hallmark of the agreement was the cur-
rent Bush-era tax cuts that were extended to 
individuals making less than $400,000, and 
married couples making less than $450,000. 
In addition, the law delayed sequestration—
an automatic cut to all federal discretionary 
programs, including many federal library 
programs—until March 1, 2013. 

Had sequestration been implemented 
at the beginning of January the across-the-
board cut to all programs would have been 
8.2 percent. For example, the impact on the 
Institute of Museum and Library Services 
would have been a $19 million cut. How-
ever, the delay compresses the cut from nine 
months to the seven remaining months left 
in the fiscal year. 

The Office of Management and Budget 
will prorate the percentage cut and, thus, it 
will be slightly less than the original 8.2 per-
cent. The impact on federal library programs 
funded by the IMLS, as well as school library 
programs funded by the U.S. Department 
of Education, are unclear at this time. For 
additional information, please see www.ala.
org/advocacy/libfunding/fed/sequestration. 

ALA joins coalition to Protect Library 
Lending Rights 
On October 23, 2012, ALA joined, as a found-
ing member, the Owners’ Rights Initiative 
(www.ownersrightsinitiative.org)—a coalition 
of retailers, libraries, educators, Internet com-
panies, and associations—working to protect 
ownership rights in the United States. The 

coalition was formed to champion “first-sale 
rights,” or ownership rights, at the center of 
Kirtsaeng v. Wiley & Sons, Inc., a case heard 
by the U.S. Supreme Court, October 29, 2012. 
An adverse decision by the Supreme Court in 
this case (i.e., upholding the Second Circuit 
Court of Appeals decision) could call into 
question libraries’ right to lend books and 
other materials manufactured abroad. 

In addition, Supreme Court’s decision in 
the case of Kirtsaeng v. Wiley is not antici-
pated until sometime into 2013. While the 
outcome of the case is still unknown, it is 
becoming increasingly clear that the poten-
tial for legislative activity addressing the first 
sale doctrine is likely. With libraries’ ability 
to lend in the balance, ALA will continue to 
monitor the potential for legislation and work 
with ORI coalition partners to uphold and 
protect libraries’ ability to lend materials no 
matter where they were manufactured. For 
additional information, please see www.ala.
org/advocacy/copyright/firstsale.

National Library Legislative Day, May 
7-8, 2013, in Washington, D.C.
Registration for the 2013 National Library 
Legislative Day (NLLD) is now open at 
www.ala.org/nlld. Hosted by ALA’s Office 
of Government Relations in Washington, 
D.C., NLLD is a two-day event that draws 
hundreds of library supporters from all types 
of libraries, including academic and public 
and school libraries. 

May 7 consists of a day of briefings for 
library participants on the most pressing 
legislative issues facing libraries, followed by 
an evening reception on Capitol Hill. May 8 
is devoted to library participants visiting their 
elected officials in the U.S. Senate and U.S. 
House of Representatives. 

With the newly sworn in 113th Congress, 
it is more important than ever to make sure 
the collective voice of library supporters is 
heard by our elected officials.