Senate Passes FY 2007 Budget; Faces Uphill Battle In The House; reposted from ALAWON On Thursday, March 16, the Senate narrowly passed its $2.8 trillion fiscal year 2007 budget resolution (S.Con.Res. 95), by a 51-49 vote. Five Republicans voted against the budget resolution while Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) supported the budget resolution.
The congressional budget resolution is a blueprint that outlines Congress’s spending priorities for the year and dictates the amount of spending the Appropriations Committee is allowed to allocate for specific departments and programs like LSTA and Improving Literacy Through School Libraries.
While there are no specific funding levels included in the FY 2007 budget resolution, Labor/HHS/Education Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) won adoption of an amendment with by a vote of 73-27 adding $7 billion for programs under the jurisdiction of the Labor/HHS/Education Appropriations Subcommittee. The Specter/Harkin amendment passed only because of an unprecedented grassroots effort. Chairman Specter said he also won commitments from Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS) that the Labor/HHS/Education Appropriations Subcommittee would receive an extra $10 billion – $3 billion added by the Budget Committee and $7 billion by his amendment.
The House Budget Committee is expected to mark up the FY 2007 budget resolution on Wednesday March 29. Despite its passage in the Senate, the FY 2007 budget resolution faces an uphill battle in the House of Representatives as Republican leaders in the House are not going to support a funding level that high. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) will offer an amendment that matches the Specter/Harkin amendment. The DeLauro amendment will add $7 billion to education and health programs to prevent the devastating cuts and program eliminations proposed in the FY 2007 budget. Without the DeLauro amendment, the Labor/HHS/Education Appropriations Subcommittee is likely to go after larger programs to restore the program eliminations proposed in the President’s budget. It is crucial that members of the House be put on notice that an FY 2007 budget resolution that does not restore cuts or provides significant increase for programs under the Labor/HHS/Education Appropriations bills is unacceptable.
ALA strongly supports the DeLauro amendment to the FY 2007 budget resolution. ALA urges you to contact your Congressman if they are on the Budget Committee and ask them support the $7 billion DeLauro amendment.
Budget Committee Republican Members:
- Jim Nussle (IA)
- Jim Ryun (KS)
- Ander Crenshaw (FL)
- Adam Putnam (FL)
- Roger Wicker (MS)
- Kenny Hulshof (MO)
- Scott Garrett (NJ)
- Gresham Barrett (SC)
- Thaddeus McCotter (MI)
- Mario Diaz-Balart (FL)
- Jeb Hensarling (TX)
- Dan Lungren (CA)
- Pete Sessions (TX)
- Paul Ryan (WI)
- Mike Simpson (ID)
- Jeb Bradley (NH)
- Patrick McHenry (NC)
- Connie Mack (FL)
- Michael Conaway (TX)
- Chris Chocola (IN)
- John Campbell (CA)
Encourage members to support library fundingPlease contact your Senator today and ask him or her to please sign the Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) letter in the Senate that supports federal library programs.
Please do not contact Sen. Reed or Sen. Collins directly. Instead, ask your representative’s staff to contact Sen. Reed or Sen. Collins’ staff to add their member’s signature.
The Senators are circulating a letter of support for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. The letter is addressed to the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriation Subcommittees and requests that the House and Senate include President Bush’s request of $220.855 million for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and increased funding for the Improving Literary Through School Libraries program for FY 2007.
If the number of signatures does not significantly increase, the letter will not be taken seriously. If your Senator is not on the letter, it is critical that you contact them immediately. Programs that don’t have a vocal support network are in danger of being cut. In a recent Congressional Quarterly article Rep. Michael Castle (R-NJ) said, ” What suffers disproportionately are the smaller programs that don’t have a lot of protectors out there.”
Whether your Senator is up for reelection this year or not, we need to hold Senators who claims to support libraries accountable. Signing the Reed-Collins letter is a great way to demonstrate support for libraries.
Deadline for signing the Senate letter is March 29.
Current signers in the Senate:
- Akaka
- Bayh
- Clinton
- Dodd
- Kennedy
- Kerry
- Jeffords
- Lautenberg
- Lincoln
- Stabenow
- Rockefeller