Legislative Update -- March 5, 2020
March 5, 2020
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LSTA & IAL Federal Funding URGENT ACTION REQUESTED!!
For the fourth year in a row, the proposed White House budget seeks to completely eliminate IMLS and the funding it administers through LSTA. Fortunately, the U.S. Congress sees the value of libraries and has continued to fund us, even with some modest increases. This year, ALA with ILA's support is seeking funding for LSTA at $206 million, and for the Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) grant program through the Department of Education, for which school libraries are eligible. It's time now to email or tweet your Congressional Representatives and our Illinois Senators to either THANK them for signing, or urge them to sign two "Dear Appropriator" letters that will be sent to the Appropriations Committees in both chambers of Congress. The list of who has signed what is available on the ALA website. Please note: Rep. Quigley (IL-5) and Rep. Bustos (IL-17) are ON the House Appropriations Committee, so if you reach out to them, we suggest tweaking the draft communication to ask them to a) keep an eye out for the letters from their peers, and b) consider submitting their own letter of support.
Illinois Legislative Issues
The second session is now in recess until March 18, following the primary election. ILA is following a number of proposed bills. ILA's Public Policy and Advocacy Committees met on Monday, March 2; see the full list of bills we're watching and our positions on them on the ILA website.
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