Bush Proposes Boost for LSTA

For the third straight year, President George W. Bush has proposed that the Library Services & Technology Act (LSTA) include $171.5 million for state grants, which would be sufficient to implement a 2003 law aimed at more equitably distributing the money. For FY07, Congress appropriated $163.7 million for the states, and, for FY08, it appropriated $160.9 million.

The American Library Association (ALA) applauded Bush's funding request, which for all LSTA grants replicated those proposed for FY08. Specifically, he recommended $12.7 million for the National Leadership Grants for Libraries, an increase of $556,000 over FY08; $26.5 million for the Recruitment of Librarians for the 21st Century, an increase of $3.2 million over FY08; and $3.7 million for Native Americans Library Services, an increase of $143,000 over FY08. He also put forth $3.5 million for library policy, research, and statistics (included in the administration total), an increase of $1.54 million over FY08.