Dear Michigan Libraries, You may have seen that President Trump released his federal 2020 budget this morning. IMLS is proposed for elimination. Here is ALA's statement<https://gcc01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ala.org%2Fnews%2Fpress-releases%2F2019%2F03%2Fala-hopeful-bipartisan-support-116th-congress-despite-discouraging-white&data=02%7C01%7CRileyR1%40michigan.gov%7Ceb52b7cc1ee549f0ccfe08d6a65768c6%7Cd5fb7087377742ad966a892ef47225d1%7C0%7C1%7C636879292639365791&sdata=tWC4D0GG91%2Fr%2B3RU%2F5zMRyEqZNJbSe5U4SdGQ9BPJOg%3D&reserved=0>. This action kicks off the "Dear Colleague" (or "Dear Appropriator") letter campaign. ALA has issued an action alert<https://gcc01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcqrcengage.com%2Fala%2Fapp%2Fwrite-a-letter%3F0%26engagementId%3D497505&data=02%7C01%7CRileyR1%40michigan.gov%7Ceb52b7cc1ee549f0ccfe08d6a65768c6%7Cd5fb7087377742ad966a892ef47225d1%7C0%7C1%7C636879292639375796&sdata=OiLWvytCDZ0fFXr8I7BJiTmvBgljs18hbqR0ipwVY0I%3D&reserved=0> for both the LSTA and IAL ("Innovative Approaches to Literacy") letters. The House's LSTA letter started circulating today and signatures are due by March 28th. Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Don Young (R-AK) are leading the charge on it. ALA Washington Office is working on getting a copy and will share as soon as available. The Senate LSTA letter is expected a bit later, in mid-April. We're hopeful that Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) will join Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) as lead for it. Libraries are encouraged to let their members of Congress know how important their continued support for LSTA funding and IMLS is to Michigan libraries. ALA has once again made a "signer tracker" available at http://www.ala.org/advocacy/fund-libraries<https://gcc01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ala.org%2Fadvocacy%2Ffund-libraries&data=02%7C01%7CRileyR1%40michigan.gov%7Ceb52b7cc1ee549f0ccfe08d6a65768c6%7Cd5fb7087377742ad966a892ef47225d1%7C0%7C1%7C636879292639375796&sdata=zRBsVEdAqADwrYb2hVXUme55VIziVcAu%2F5zMvTQUdtQ%3D&reserved=0>. You can use this to see the signer status for each member of your state's delegation. To get an idea of possible talking points, attached to this message are 2 pdf documents developed by ALA for their recent fly in event. We have been through this process before. COSLA will be discussing this in detail at the next Board meeting. Thanks, r. Randy Riley State Librarian Library of Michigan 702 W. Kalamazoo Street Lansing, MI 48909 (517) 335-1517 Rileyr1@michigan.gov<mailto:Rileyr1@michigan.gov>