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Bush budget.The fiscal year 1993 budget request sent to Congress on January 29 by President Bush is a repeat of the FY ’92 budget request. The administration is recommending only $35 million, a 76 percent cut from the $147,752,000 appropriated last year. Once again, the $35 million would be available for only one program, the Library Services and Construction Act title I for public library services, and targeted to only one LSCA I purpose: literacy programs for adults and school dropouts and establishment of model literacy centers.

Figure 1. BUDGET REQUEST COMPARISON FY‘92 TO FY‘93 (amounts in thousands)

PROGRAM	FY‘92 APPROP.	FY‘93 ADMIN. REQ.
Library Services and Construction Act	$129,663	$35,000
Title I public library services	83,898	35,000
II public library construction	16,718	0
III interlibrary cooperation	19,908	0
IV Indian library services0	—	—
V foreign language materials	976	0
VI library literacy programs	8,163	0
Higher education act	18,084	0
Title II-B library career training	5,000	0**
II-B research and demonstrations	325	0
II-C research libraries	5,855	0
II-D college library technology	6,404	0
V sec. 607 foreign periodicals	500	0
TOTAL $147,752 $ 35,000

* Funded at 2 percent of appropriations for LSCA I, II, and III.

** Proposed for consolidation with several graduate fellowship programs with Secretary setting priorities for each year.

The administration’s rationale is also a repeat of last year’s arguments. The programs have served their purpose, the needs have been met, and support is available from other sources. These arguments have been rejected by Congress over and over again. The HEA recommendations reflect the administration’s position on HEA reauthorization, which has already been rejected by Congress in pending HEA bills.

ALA opposes the administration’s proposal and recommends that LSCA and HEA library programs be funded as currently structured. The administration’s budget for libraries is particularly disappointing this year, coming soon after the White House Conference on Library and Information Services. Budget figures on selected other programs follow.

Figure 2. OTHER LIBRARY AND RELATED PROGRAMS (amounts in thousands)

PROGRAM	FY‘92 APPROP.	FY‘93 ADMIN. REQ.
GPO SuDocs	$27,082	$30,983
Library of Congress	328,170	357,528
National Agricultural Library	17,715	18,025
National Archives	146,743	161,045
National Center for Education Statistics	77,213	128,400
NCLIS	831	1,000
Nat’l Endowment for the Humanities	175,955	187,059
NHPRC	5,400	4,000
National Library of Medicine	100,303	108,662
(inch Medical Library Assistance Act)
Postal revenue forgone subsidy	470,000	121,912’

*The U.S. Postal Service estimates $481,912,000 is needed to maintain preferred rates on the current schedule.

LC and GPO.Incoming ACRL Government Relations Committee chair Katherine Mawdsley testified on January 29 before the House legislative branch appropriations subcommittee in support of the budget requests of the Library of Congress and the Government Printing Office. Mawdsley, associate university librarian for public services at the University of California at Davis, represented the American Library Association and the Association of Research Libraries.

Although she worked under the disadvantage of having to have written testimony delivered before any agency budget details were officially released, Mawdsley had the decided advantage of being a well-known constituent of the subcommittee chairman, Vic Fazio (D-CA), and she had previous experience as a witness before the Fazio subcommittee. Her LC testimony concentrated on initiatives that promote enhanced access to LC resources, new opportunities for LC in the sci/tech information arena, preservation programs, and service for the blind and physically handicapped. LC has asked for a nine percent increase for FY ’93, two thirds of which is needed to maintain current services.

Concerning the GPO Superintendent of Documents budget, Mawdsley focused on funding for the depository library program, evaluation of the electronic pilot projects, depository library recommendations from WHCLIS, GPO’s strategic plan, and the GPO WINDO bill. She recommended that Congress invest more in personnel and funds in GPO’s Information Technology Program, fund GPO to make the transition to electronic dissemination, and enable GPO to maintain effective operations of the current depository library program.

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