National Library Legislative Day 2007

I returned from Washington, DC today. Yesterday was a very full day of meeting with Congressional staff as well as Congressman. The delegation from South Carolina met with Senator Graham's and Senator Demint's staff. In the afternoon, we divided our groups and covered House members. I was on the team that met with Henry Brown, Joe Wilson and Bob Inglis. On the House side we met with staff and the House members.

The message was twofold...appropriations and policy. On appropriations my job was to speak to LSTA and the President's request for $226.18 million for LSTA grants. Folks in Libraryland support the request. On additional appropriations - we covered e-rate and its importance, and the GPO's request for $46 million. On the policy side of our discussion we covered the closing of military base and EPA libraries, net neutrality, the Patriot Act, the National ID card and much more.

It has been a crazy week, but in the end we (the SC delegation) communicated the importance of library's, and the work we all do to make South Carolina a better place.

I am attaching two pictures. The first picture is of Bob Inglis with half of the SC delegation: Tom Gilson, Ray Turner, Inglis, me, Quincy Pugh, and Elizabeth Shupping.

The second picture is just interesting. The first amendment of the US Constitution guarantees the Freedom of Speech, but it does not guarantee that anyone will listen.