ALAWON v6n92 (November 3, 1997) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/alawon/alawon-v6n92 ================================================================= ALAWON Volume 6, Number 92 ISSN 1069-7799 November 3, 1997 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (190 lines) --LC BICENTENNIAL AND LOCAL PROJECTS THROUGH CONGRESS UPDATE: CONTACT WITH CONGRESSIONAL STAFF NEEDED --NSF APPROPRIATIONS BILL UPDATE --HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SCIENCE POLICY STUDY _________________________________________________________________ LC BICENTENNIAL AND LOCAL PROJECTS THROUGH CONGRESS UPDATE: CONTACT WITH CONGRESSIONAL STAFF NEEDED Each congressional office has been asked to designate a state/local contact for the Library of Congress Bicentennial commemoration in the year 2000 (See ALAWON v6, n88, October 17, 1997). ACTION NEEDED: Library representatives nationwide may wish to contact their congressional offices in order to work congressional staff in order to suggest appropriate state/district projects. In October Librarian of Congress James Billington sent information to every Senator and Representative about the Library's plans to highlight the role of libraries in promoting knowledge, creativity, and liberty in America. The Librarian asked that each office designate a staff member, both in Washington and in district/state offices to serve as the Library's points of coordination and communication. The LC Bicentennial Commemoration plans with state/district overtones include: --GIFTS TO THE NATION, a program to elicit at least one significant acquisition, representative of a congressional district, for the Library's collections; --FRONTIERS OF KNOWLEDGE, a program repeating an LC conference at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 in which scholars will summarize significant developments in major fields and look ahead to next century challenges. The audience will include at least one young achiever from every congressional district; and --HERITAGE OF THE STATES (also known as Local Legacies), to identify and partner with LC such projects as identifying local historical collections, developing local heritage projects, promoting reading and literacy, and identifying unique examples of American folklore. For more information, visit www.loc.gov/bicentennial. _________________________________________________________________ NSF APPROPRIATIONS BILL UPDATE House and Senate conferees agreed on a funding package that included the National Science Foundation. The legislation was included in the Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development FY98 Appropriations bill (H.R. 2158), signed into law October 27 as P. L. 105-65. Some of the details of that agreement are beginning to become clearer--and in some cases foggier--and several affect the Computer and Information Science and Engineering directorate. As usual in conference, the overall NSF mark split the difference between the generous House mark and a positive, but smaller increase from the Senate. But, because of some reshuffling among categories, the research line item was actually larger than either chamber had given originally. The final numbers are as follows: _________________________________________________________________ NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION APPROPRIATIONS FOR FY98 Line Item Request House Senate Final (in millions of dollars) Research and Related Activities 2,515 2,538 2,524 2,545 Major Research Equipment 85 175 85 109 Education and Human Resources 625 632 625 632 Salaries and Expenses, and IG 142 142 142 142 Total 3,367 3,487 3,377 3,428 _________________________________________________________________ Appropriations bills, even NSF's, are typically filled with specific allocations and critiques of particular programs, and this one is no exception. Many relate to computing and information programs. Some examples: NEXT GENERATION INTERNET (NGI): Perhaps the most confusing and complicated action was with regard to NGI. The House had increased NSF's NGI budget from $10M to $23M, while the Senate left it at $10M. The conference report established the House mark, good news, but appropriated no money for it. Rather, they directed NSF to take $23M from a fund held by Network Solutions, Inc (NSI) which came from user fees charged for domain name registration. NSI was operating under an NSF contract, which specified that excess income be held aside and put in a fund to be used for improving the Internet. That fund is reportedly now in excess of $50 million. Now, as has been widely reported, the whole issue of domain name registration has blown up into a major fight, with the fund caught in the middle. Lawsuits have already been filed over NSI control of domain name registration and fee collection, and, should NSF actually try to get their hands on that money for NGI purposes, more suits will probably be initiated. Many think it is highly unlikely that NSF will have a clear and timely chance to spend that money this fiscal year. The net effect, so to speak, could well be a zero appropriation for NSF's NGI activities. The conference report also expressed the concern raised in the Senate that NGI participation be equitably dispersed among the states, and directed NSF to produce a report on that issue for the committees by next March. KNOWLEDGE AND DISTRIBUTED INTELLIGENCE (KDI): The KDI program is a cross-cutting initiative involving several NSF Directorates, including Education. The House report was positive, but the Senate had a negative reaction to the KDI and withheld funding . The Senate report found the program descriptions provided by NSF to be fuzzy and lacking in sufficient detail. Conference report language expresses the committee's expectations that NSF provide more detailed milestones and guideposts before KDI money is spent, but did not hold the money out of the budget. PARTNERSHIPS FOR ADVANCED COMPUTATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE (PACI): The House raised concerns about the transition funding for the two losing National Supercomputer Centers (the Pittsburgh and Cornell Centers) who were bidders in the PACI competition. They added $5M to the transition funds that will be made available to those centers. The conference report removed the $5M, but retained language expressing concern. It directed NSF to monitor the transition carefully and submit a report with its FY 1999 budget request that particularly analyzes the fate of "high-end" users of the IBM SP (the system currently in operation at Cornell). On other fronts, the conference bill retained the Senate's increase of $40M for plant genome research, and deferred to the next fiscal year one-half of the $70M allotment for upgrading NSF's Antarctic facilities. _________________________________________________________________ HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SCIENCE POLICY STUDY Congressman Vern Ehlers (R-MI), Vice Chair of the House Science Committee, has been asked by House Speaker Newt Gingrich to conduct a year long review of U.S. science policy. Ehlers, speaking to a group of computer association executives a few days ago, said that the study will hopefully lead to some form of bill or resolution, that will reestablish the contract and attract bipartisan consensus on the government's role in funding scientific research. The study formally started on October 23 with a lunch meeting with a few dozen science leaders. Mr. Ehlers, Mr. Gingrich, and F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), chair of the Science Committee. The Science Policy Study has a web page at www.house.gov/science/science_policy_study.htm. _________________________________________________________________ ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc @ala.org. To unsubscribe, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/ washoff/alawon. Visit our Web site at http://www.alawash.org. ALA Washington Office 202.628.8410 (V) 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F) Washington, DC 20004-1701 800.941.8478 (V) Lynne E. Bradley, Editor Deirdre Herman, Managing Editor Contributors: Rick W. Weingarten Carol C. Henderson All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================