Congress at Odds Over LSTA

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By Staff -- School Library Journal, 11/01/2003

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Now that President Bush has reauthorized the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) at $232 million for FY 2004, media specialists should urge their legislators to approve funding at its highest levels. Both houses of Congress are still at odds over how much to fund the law, which awards competitive grants to libraries for technology and other special projects. Currently, the House recommends LSTA be funded at $183 million and the Senate at $177 million.

The new law also requires that states receiving LSTA funding set goals for improving library services. The accountability provisions will force states to create five-year plans in areas such as literacy and the archiving of electronic information, says Mary Costabile of the American Library Association. If LSTA is appropriated at its full level, the new formula for distribution would double the base funding to each state. LSTA was appropriated at $180 million in FY 2003. Congress is set to vote on LSTA funding before the federal budget is passed at the end of 2003.