After months of advocacy around the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and the Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) program "Dear Appropriator" letters, the appropriations process has moved into the hands of two key House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees. This places the fate of critical library funding programs in the hands of fewer than three dozen members of Congress from 25 states. The next critical juncture for FY 2018 federal library funding will come when the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees with jurisdiction over IMLS and those critical programs meet to vote on what to cut and which programs to fund at what specific levels.

Right now, the members of the "Labor HHS" Subcommittees are working on the FY18 budget. MLA members and library supporters who live in Michigan's 4th Congressional District please contact Rep. John Moolenaar through the ALA Legislative Action Center and ask him to fund LSTA at $186.6 million and IAL at $27 million in FY 2018.

As a constituent of one of these few, key Members of Congress you have the real power to help save IMLS and keep LSTA and IAL from being cut or eliminated. 

 

For more information about federal library funding, LSTA, and IAL, please visit District Dispatch.