Washington eBulletin 鈥� December 2019

A Look Ahead

黑料社Advocates for Legislative Priorities as First Session of 116th Congress Enters Final Weeks

黑料社is advocating for several legislative priorities as the聽end of the first session of the 116th Congress quickly approaches, including urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to mark up the Electronic Court Records Reform Act, or ECRRA (/).聽The Southeastern Chapter of the 黑料社 of Law Libraries (SEAALL) also sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) in support of ECRRA.

黑料社is preparing for possible action on copyright issues, following a commitment聽earlier this year by Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC),聽chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, to聽introduce legislation based on feedback gathered from a months-long working group established to discuss U.S. Copyright Office modernization. 黑料社has concerns about proposals to make the Copyright Office independent of the Library of Congress because we believe it would ultimately weaken the Copyright Office and erect barriers to an effective, balanced copyright system.聽We are also monitoring the聽聽to determine any potential impact on the privacy of library users and confidentiality of library records.

Congress has until December 20 to negotiate fiscal year 2020 funding bills, giving the House and Senate several more weeks to determine聽top-line spending allocations. 黑料社continues to urge that any legislative branch appropriations agreement include as close to full funding as possible for the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) and the Library of Congress/Law Library of Congress, which would allow, among other priorities, the continued digitization of historical Congressional and other public domain materials.

Changes Coming to the Washington eBulletin聽

Starting in January 2020, the Washington eBulletin will shift to a biannual publication schedule, with more regular government relations updates moving to the 黑料社eNewsletter and Weekly eNews. Chapter and SIS news, including news related to advocacy, may be submitted for publication in the 黑料社eNewsletter’s Community Corner. Submissions should be sent to聽Heather Haemker at聽hhaemker@aall.org.

Roundup and Review

  • 黑料社endorsed the nomination of to lead the GPO and to lead the Institute聽of Museum and Library Services.
  • 黑料社and the American Library Association聽 to proposed updates to GPO’s regional depository library discard policy, which would alter the conditions under which tangible titles may be discarded.
  • The聽U.S. Supreme Court聽heard oral argument in聽Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org Inc聽on December 2.聽聽addresses the question of whether the government edicts doctrine extends to works that lack the force of law, such as the annotations in the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (OCGA), and therefore cannot be copyrighted. 黑料社signed on to an with other national library associations in the case. The 聽is available from the Supreme Court’s website, and the audio recording of the oral argument will be available聽on December 6.