Friday, March 11, 2016

5 Minutes Can Net Libraries $200 Million :: Federal Budget

Five minutes can net libraries $200 million next year

District Dispatch: 3.11.2016 by Kevin Maher

Earlier this week, we asked for your help in defending the more than $200 million in LSTA and other federal library funding from Congressional and Administration cost-cutters.

Time was short then and it’s even shorter now.

Your help is needed to get your Representative and both US Senators to sign “Dear Appropriator” letters supporting LSTA and Innovative Approaches to Literacy grants, among others.  With just a few days left to get as many members of Congress behind those programs as humanly possible, now is the time for you to go to ALA’s Legislative Action Center and help save more than $200 million for communities across the country . . . very likely including yours!

A strong showing on these letters sends a signal to the Appropriations Committees’ to protect LSTA and IAL funding. So far, your work has generated thousands of emails, but frankly, we need many, many more.

Whether you call, email, tweet or all of the above (which would be great), the message to the office staff of your Senators and Representative is simple:

“Hello, I’m a constituent.
Please ask Representative/Senator ________
to sign the LSTA and IAL ‘Dear Appropriator’ letters
circulating for signature!”

Please take five minutes to call, email, or Tweet at your Members of Congress and support library funding for 2017. For more detailed information, read our earlier post on District Dispatch.

Senate letters must be completed by March 14
House letters must be completed by March 18.


No comments: