Bush’s FY 2007 Budget Is Kind to Libraries

President hikes library funds; Boehner as new House majority leader is seen as a plus

By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 3/1/2006

Library supporters are applauding the funding increases for libraries proposed by President Bush in his FY 2007 budget. The president is requesting $220.9 million for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), the only federal program created exclusively for libraries. That’s a $10.25 million increase from last year.

Overall, Bush is asking for $262.2 million for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a 6.1 percent increase for the agency that administers LSTA. Even though the president is proposing that the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries grant program be level funded at $19.5 million, that’s still good news, says Emily Sheketoff, the executive director of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Washington office. “We’re grateful because so many programs in education were cut or eliminated,” she says.

Ultimately, ALA’s goal is to get the grant program—which is part of the No Child Left Behind Act—funded at its authorized level of $250 million. But in these tight budgetary times where the focus is on national security, it’ll be a long time until Congress even funds the school library program at $100 million, turning it from a competitive grant into a state block grant, Sheketoff says.

Why have libraries fared so well under the Bush administration? It doesn’t hurt that Laura Bush is a former school librarian. “We have to thank those people in the administration who are very influential, which of course includes the First Lady,” Sheketoff adds. The president is also calling for $25 million, a $1.24 million increase from last year, for the First Lady’s Twenty First Century Librarian Program, whose goal is to train and recruit a new generation of librarians.

The budget also requests $30 million to revamp the decrepit Washington, DC, public library system, which has been in desperate need of massive renovations at all branches, including its main library.

Bush’s budget will need the support of Congress. His chances of having it approved will depend in part on the new Republican leadership in the House under elected majority leader, Representative John Boehner (R-OH), who replaced Tom Delay (R-TX).

Boehner, who has been chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce since 2001 and has close ties with the White House, helped craft one of President Bush’s signature first-term achievements, the No Child Left Behind Act, and helped shepherd the bill through the House. In 2002, Bush traveled to Boehner’s district on Ohio’s western border with Indiana to sign the education bill into law.

“[Boehner] is a friend of libraries,” says Sheketoff, adding that he was chairman of the education committee when LSTA came up for reauthorization in 2003. “He supported it, and he made sure it got on the floor for a vote.” Boehner also worked with then-subcommittee chair Representative Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) “to make sure that the bill had the support it needed to pass,” Sheketoff adds.