[Editor
comment: This is the twenty-first in a series of daily posts about the various
aspects of advocacy. Please feel free to start a discussion. We'd love
to hear from you!]
by Robert Ray, former Trustee, Glenside Public Library District
“There are these two hungry bees,” began Senator Dick Durbin, speaking at the Illinois Library Association (ILA) dinner. “And one bee decides to get a square meal at a nearby Bar Mitzva. When he comes back he tells the other bee that he got his fill from the celebration's many floral arrangements, and that everyone at the affair treated him as if he belonged. But when the first bee notices that the now over-stuffed bee is wearing a yamaka on his head, he asks why. The second bee replies that he'd put it on to show he wasn't crashing the party as a wasp.”
And so it was like a swarm of 500 hungry bees, that librarians and trustees from across the country crashed both parties of Congress on May 4, 2004 to lobby for a multitude of issues. The Durbin speech the previous night had capped a full day of classroom lectures designed to prepare us for our Capitol Hill adventure. Some of the talks had been energetic and upbeat. But I'd suggest passing on the Copyright Law speakers next time. Way too dull.
Fortunately the staff from the DuPage Library System, the Illinois Library Association, and the American Library Association provided plenty of written material and it only took about an hour of “study hall” in my hotel room to feel I'd armed myself with every conceivable argument I'd need to amaze and impress our Congressional delegation. Here was the plan hatched by ALA and fine-tuned later in a DLS strategy session:
First, we butter 'em up by thanking our Congresspersons for voting last year in favor of reauthorizing the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) at $232 million dollars. Unfortunately the Bush budget only calls for $220 million. So we lined up a series of reasons why $232 million would be better, like how public libraries become even more important during tough economic times, whether it's the small businessman needing data, the jobless seeking employment information, or the after-school children using the library while both parents work.
Next, we ask for even more money: $100 million to pay for the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program that's in the No Child Left Behind act. We point out how studies show that school libraries tend to improve the grades of students who use them. And then we ask how are we ever going to stop out-sourcing jobs overseas unless we better educate our youth at home. We also mention that the proposed Bush budget had frozen this item at $19.5 million, which means school libraries would have to compete with each other to get any money at all. Only the full $100 million would insure that all states get their fair share.
Then, we make a request that costs Congressional members no money at all (unless they're getting campaign bucks from the recording industry). We ask them to vote down any bills that might limit the fair use provisions in the copyright law that deals with electronic resources. It seems those dull and boring copyright law lecturers see a future threat from the recording and entertainment industries. The lobbyists for those industries have been beating on Congress about electronic piracy. They're worried about those teenagers who've been down-loading Internet music, or the jerks that use camcorders to copy movies in the theater (there was a funny Seinfeld episode on that, as I recall). Anyway, our concern would be if those industries overreact by making it impossible for libraries to copy electronic databases, or to use CDs, DVDs, or CD-ROMs on more than one computer. There's a bill that would allow libraries to unblock any electronic blocks which those industries put into their products. And we're asking our Congress people to support it.
Finally, we get to the PATRIOT Act. The ALA lecturer on this subject got so worked up about it that by the time he was done, he wanted us to lobby against just about every questionable provision in the Act. But we in the DLS delegation wisely decided to limit our scope to the one provision that might affect libraries. It's Section 215, which allows for quickie warrants to search library patron records in secret and without needing probable cause. We want a bill sponsored by Durbin that exempts libraries from Section 215. Then, there's another bill that would make things worse, by adding criminal penalties against the librarian who tells about the search. Despite the ALA lecturer's enthusiasm, however, we were told by Sen. Durbin's staff that the odds are almost nil that Congress will do anything about the PATRIOT Act until next year, when many provisions of the act, including Section 215, would need to be renewed, or die.
So, when Tuesday arrived, we gathered in groups and hit the Hill. We divided up the talking points and my two areas of alleged expertise (acquired just the previous night of course) were LSTA appropriations and the (yawn) copyright thing. Each DLS group also presented our hosts with a "goody bag" that included a candy bar with library facts written on the back where the nutrition facts usually go, and a gavel-shaped, smiley face toy that squeaks when you shake it, writes like a pen, and lets you blow soap bubbles from the handle. (I think the toy was a bigger hit than we were...)
The first stop for our group was Rep. Henry Hyde's office in the Rayburn Office Building. About 20 of us showed up, but Hyde's staff only wanted to allow constituents in, so the number got whittled down to about 12. On the plus side, Hyde was the only Congressperson who met us that day. All the others had staff to see us. Hyde was recovering from back surgery and was nearly chair bound, but he was his same old politically correct self, gracious and supportive of libraries in general. However, he appeared to commit only on the fair use and copyright issues.
Lunch was in the House’s Longworth Building's food court, which resembles something of a steam pipe room. Nothing fancy here. Librarians really know how to pinch a penny.
Next up was a hallway-only meeting with Rebecca Antar of Rep. Rahm Emanuel's office. Franklin Park Public Library is the only DLS public library in his district, so the North Suburban Library System was there as well.
Then, at 3 p.m., about 10 of us we were ushered into a comfortable conference room inside House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office, where staffer Amy Tenhouse from downstate Quincy proved to be our best audience of the day. While non-committal, she appeared to be interested in all our subjects, asked good questions, took a lot of notes, and was even more gracious than Hyde's people had been.
The last stop of the day was at 4 p.m. with top staffer James Rohner in Senator Peter Fitzgerald's office. Rohner also was quite pleasant, but said he couldn't commit to anything for two reasons: 1) Not much new legislation is expected to pass this year, and obviously Fitzgerald won't be around anymore next year. 2) He also said Fitzgerald doesn't make decisions without extensive study, sometimes waiting until the last minute.
That was it for me. There was a scheduled reception at the Rayburn Office building from 5 to 7 p.m., but I had to miss it in order to catch a plane.
All in all, it was both an educational and fun trip. I had time to visit the Vietnam Memorial (my generation), the new WW-II Memorial (truely fantastic), the Library of Congress (a real palace), and do a little window shopping in Georgetown (where I used to live). I don't know if we changed any votes, but I was able to confirm all previous assumptions that librarians in general are a pretty nice bunch of folks.
Reprinted with permission. From DLS News, July/August 2004
[Editor’s note: Robert Ray was one of two trustees who received a DLS
grant to attend National Legislative Day in Washington, D.C. on May
4, 2004.]
