Congress Backs EPA Funding

Reversing a policy bitterly opposed by library advocates, many Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees, and the watchdog Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), Congress in its omnibus appropriations bill passed at the end of 2007 earmarked $3 million to restore service at the EPA’s technical and research libraries.

“This is...a great victory,” said Lynne Bradley, director of the Office of Government Relations in the American Library Association’s (ALA) Washington Office, who noted how librarians lobbied Congress and then-ALA president Leslie Burger on February 6, 2007, testified before that body. “These are marathons, not sprints. The library community kept the issue alive.”

Over 18 months, EPA closed six of 24 libraries in its library network, including four of ten regional libraries and the Office of Pesticides library in Washington, DC, and cut hours and services in three regional facilities. Also, according to PEER, nine libraries attached to laboratories are in the process of being closed and/or consolidated. EPA officials had said the process, which began without public debate or consultation with constituents, would both save money and streamline service, eventually resulting in greater access to digitized materials.

The amended appropriations bill includes $1 million more than the amount proposed by the Senate, providing sufficient funds to restore the network. EPA was directed to report within 90 days on its plans to “restore publicly available libraries to provide environmental information and data to each EPA region....” “While the intervention of Congress is most welcome, it comes after several closures and much disruption, leaving the remaining EPA librarians with the task of putting Humpty Dumpty back together again,” said PEER associate director Carol Goldberg.