Senate Committee Funds Restoration of EPA Library Network

Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 06/29/2007

The Senate Appropriations Committee, in its FY08 Interior Appropriations bill, has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reverse course and reopen at least five closed libraries, offering $2 million—the amount the EPA had hoped to save—to do so. The measure, according to the American Library Association’s Washington Office, now goes to the full Senate. Should it pass, it would have to be harmonized with the counterpart bill passed by the House of Representatives, which does not address the EPA library issue.

The Senate measure states, "While the Committee approves of efforts to make environmental data collections available electronically, the Committee does not agree to further library closures or consolidations without evidence of how the public would be served by these changes. Therefore, the Committee expects the EPA to restore publicly available library facilities in each region. EPA is directed to submit a plan on how it will use this funding increase to reopen facilities and maintain a robust collection of environmental data and resources in each region by December 31, 2007."