Approved-By:  RAED@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.govdoc-l
Date:         Thu, 7 Jan 1993 10:12:40 CST
From:         Vigdor Schreibman - Federal Information News Synd
              <fins@access.digex.com>
Subject:      Budgetary Priorities & the DLP

----------------------------Original message----------------------------

  On Wed, 6 Jan 1993 15:19:50 ,  Cheryl Nyberg <NYBERG@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu>
posted the following message:

----------------------------Original message----------------------------

Representative Charlie Rose, chair of the Joint Committee on Printing,
responded to my letter regarding the GPO's microfiche conversion
proposal. In his letter was the following statement:

"You may not be aware that the Appropriations Committee in cooperation
with the Joint Committee on Printing moved approximately two million
dollars from the Congressional Printing and Binding appropriation to the
Salaries and Expenses appropriation. This will allow the Serial Set and
other Congressional publications to be available to depository libraries
during fiscal year 1993."

One small step for depositories and the citizens we serve.

                * * * * * * * * * *

    The following comment was posted by Vigdor Schreibman, Editor &
Publisher, Federal Information News Syndicate [fins@access.digex.com]:

        Ms Nyberg's report is old news, and should not be misunderstood by
the library community as any resolution of the current budgetary crisis of
the GPO.  Librarians will remember that the FY 1993 budget was originally
set by Congress at $27 million.  This was increased to increased to $29
million by means of the shift in funds reported in Chairman Rose's letter
to Ceryl Nyberg.  However, the $2 million dollar increase for FY 1993,
turned out to be short by an additional $3.5 million.  This shortfall was
the subject of a letter from the SupDocs, dated November 18, 1992.  In
this letter Mr. Wayne P. Kelley alerted the library community to "the
serious budgetary situation facing the Federal Depository Library Program
(FDLP)."

        Among other changes Mr. Kelley thought were made necessary by the
current crisis was a need for reduction in the U.S. Congressional Seria
Set.  As things now stand, this important publication will be distributed
only to regional depositories, beginning with the 102nd Congress.

        If librarians want to solve this budgetary crisis they are going
to have to fight hard for a major realignment of priorities in Congress.
They are also going to have to take on the key staff assistants of the
Committee on Appropriations, like Edward D. Lombard, of the Subcomm. on
Legislative.  These characters like to role all over anyone who has the
audacity to question the distorted priorities imposed on the American
people, through the arbitrary decision-making process now at work in the
Capital.

        Congress is still funding the U.S. Army, force structure for a
major tank battle against the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe.  They remain
committed to the B-2 Bomber, which never had an intelligible mission, and
was designed to fight an enemy that no longer exists.  They also remain
committed to the Space Station Freedom, which is nothing more than an
"Orbiting Pork Barrel." These hideously expensive programs will suck
hundreds of billions of dollars out of our society.  They all lead to a
complete dead-end without value to the Nation, designed merely to glorify
irrational power, at the expense of the real needs of the Nation.  Staff
Assistant Lombard, and the members of Congress that have created this
situation, need to be confronted with these realities, in the most
aauthoritative terms they can understand.

        The continuing deterioration of the Depository Library Program,
which has been sucked dry during the last decade due to these appalling
decisions, is unable to tolerate any further budgetary outrage.  But
librarians and their associations are going to have to apply shock
treatment to members of Congress, to turn this situation around.  Polite
letters, and quiet grumbling won't do it.  Whenever the Bankers, the Boat
Owners, or the Used Car Dealers want something from Congress, they know
how to get their way fast--with a simple formula--apply raw power.

        A demand for budgetary reform taped to the front door of every
library in the nation, weekly lectures to library patrons on the
outrageously distorted Federal budgets, every Saturday morning.  That
would be a little more like what is required.  Then one of our tough and
ready librarians can come to the Capital and explain to the esteemed
representatives of the American people, oh so politely, just exactly what
we need, to secure a competent Depository Library Program in each district
of the Nation.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU