mar14_b.indd


March 2014 155 C&RL News

Jazzy Wright is press officer of the ALA Washington 
Office, e-mail: jwright@alawash.org

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n eJazzy Wright

Budget figures announced for 2014 
fiscal year
In January 2014, President Obama signed a 
$1.1 trillion spending bill to fund the U.S. 
federal government through September 2014. 
The legislation partially restores funding to 
the Library Services and Technology Act 
(LSTA)—the primary source of annual fund-
ing for libraries in the federal budget—that 
were dramatically cut in the 2013 fiscal year 
under sequestration. 

The total amount appropriated for LSTA 
increased from $175,044,000 to $180,909,000 
for fiscal year 2014 (ALA asked for $184.7 
million for FY 2014, so the LSTA funding 
falls short of the organization’s funding goal). 

More from the bill:

• Grants to states programs increased 
from $150 million to $154 million.

• National Leadership grants increased 
from $11,377,000 to $12,200,000.

• Laura Bush 21st-century Librarian grants 
remained at $10 million.

• Native American and Hawaiian Li-
brary Services increased from $3,667,000 to 
$3,861,000.

• Innovative Approaches to Literacy—a 
competitive grant under the Department of 
Education that requires that half of the funds 
go to low-income school libraries—was ap-
propriated at $25 million in FY 2014.

The spending bill included language that 
supports open access—a win for libraries and 
public access to federally funded informa-
tion. Federal agencies under the Department 
of Labor, Health and Human Services, and 
Department of Education with research bud-
gets of $100 million or more will be required 
to provide online access to articles that report 

on federally funded research. Federal agen-
cies will have no more than 12 months after 
the articles are published in a peer-reviewed 
journal to make them publicly accessible. 

While we celebrate this milestone in open 
access, we are also aware that we have not 
gone far enough. The additional provisions 
found in the Fair Access to Science and 
Technology Research Act would make this 
effort complete.

Save the date for the 2014 National 
Freedom of Information Day
Mark your calendars: The 16th annual 
National Freedom of Information Day 
conference will be held Friday, March 14, 
2014, at the Knight Conference Center at 
the Newseum in Washington, D.C. As part 
of the conference, ALA will announce the 
James Madison Award recipient, an award 
presented to individuals or groups that have 
championed, protected, and promoted public 
access to government information and the 
public’s right to know. Last year, ALA post-
humously awarded activist Aaron Swartz the 
Madison Award for his dedication to promot-
ing and protecting public access to research 
and government information.

ALA joins others in calling for ECPA 
reform
In December, ALA joined a nationwide day 
of action calling for reform of the Electronic 
Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), the law 
that gives the government access to American 
e-mails and documents in the cloud without 
a warrant. ECPA allows hundreds of other 
government agencies—like the IRS, FBI, and 
DEA, as well as state and local law enforce-
ment agencies—to access stored e-mails, pri-
vate social media messages, and documents 
in the cloud. Participating organizations 
include Americans for Tax Reform, Demand 
Progress, and TechFreedom.