Hi all -
It appears that *tomorrow* the House Committee on Administration
<https://cha.house.gov/about/members> will hold a hearing
<https://cha.house.gov/hearing/hearing-transforming-gpo-21st-century-and-beyond-part-3-%E2%80%93-federal-depository-library-program>
on the effort to reform Title 44 and the Federal Depository Library system.
As you may know, any reformation of Title 44 could have significant effects
on the public's right to accessible, free government information. You may
also know that the effort to reform Title 44 has gotten *very* little
public attention, and very little input from the library/archives
community.
I'm attaching, here, a list of the members of that committee, as well as a
list of the Senators who sit on the related Joint Committee on Printing
<https://cha.house.gov/jointcommittees/joint-committee-on-printing>.
If you live in Minnesota, Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, New Mexico,
Nebraska, or in Philadelphia, Durham, Northern Virginia, Northern
California, Champaign-Urbana (Illinois), or Atlanta (among other places),
you have a representative on one or both of these committees.
Perhaps you would like to *call or email them* *today* to tell them your
thoughts about Title 44 and the importance of a legal guarantee to free
public access to government information? If you do, you may wish to *urge
them to ensure that **all changes to Title 44 be directly tied to one or
more of the four principles put forth by experienced government documents
librarians and freegovinfo.info <http://freegovinfo.info>, which are:*
1. The law should ensure the privacy of users of government info.
2. The law should address the long-term preservation challenges posed by
born-digital government information.
3. The law should protect free access and free use.
4. The law should modernize the scope of government information covered
by chapter 19 for the digital age.
For more info about Title 44 and the threats facing it, see:
- The DLF's open letter to Congress
<https://www.diglib.org/archives/14576/> about reforming Title 44;
- Freegovinfo.info's writings about the importance of Title 44 (see here
<https://freegovinfo.info/node/12168>, for instance);
- This post <https://www.diglib.org/archives/14551/>on the DLF blog
about threats to Title 44.
Please feel free to share the text of any emails you send, or the outcome
of any conversations you have with your representatives and their staffers,
with the rest of us!
Be well,
Rachel
+
*Members of the House Committee on Administration:*
- *Gregg Harper (R-MS)*
- represents central portions of state that stretch from the Louisiana
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana> border in the west to the
Alabama <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama> border in the east.
Large cities in the district include Meridian
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian,_Mississippi>, Starkville
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starkville,_Mississippi>, Pearl
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl,_Mississippi>, and Natchez
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natchez,_Mississippi>.)
-
*Robert Brady (D-PA) *
- represents central and South Philadelphia
- *Rodney Davis (R-IL) *
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_County,_Illinois>
- Represents areas including Bond
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_County,_Illinois>, Champaign
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champaign_County,_Illinois>, Madison
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_County,_Illinois>, McLean
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLean_County,_Illinois> and Sangamon
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangamon_County,_Illinois> counties,
and all of Christian
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_County,_Illinois>, Calhoun
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calhoun_County,_Illinois>, De Witt
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Witt_County,_Illinois>, Greene
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greene_County,_Illinois>, Jersey
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_County,_Illinois>, Macon
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macon_County,_Illinois>, Macoupin
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macoupin_County,_Illinois>, Montgomery
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_County,_Illinois> and Piatt
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piatt_County,_Illinois> counties, as
of the 2011 redistricting which followed the 2010 census
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Census,_2010>. All or
parts of Bloomington
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomington,_Illinois>, Champaign
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champaign,_Illinois>, Decatur
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decatur,_Illinois>, Godfrey
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey,_Illinois>, Taylorville
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylorville,_Illinois> and Urbana
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbana,_Illinois>
- *Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)*
- represents San José and Santa Clara County
- *Barbara Comstock (R-VA)*
- represents Northern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley
- *Jamie Raskin (D-MD)*
- represents Carroll, Frederick, and Montgomery County
- *Mark Walker (R-NC) *
- represents the north central portion of the state; parts of
Guilford, Alamance, Durham, Granville, and Orange counties, and all of
Caswell, Person, Rockingham, Surry, and Stokes counties
-
*Adrian Smith (R-NE) *
- represents the western three-fourths of the state; It includes Grand
Island <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Island,_Nebraska>, Kearney
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kearney,_Nebraska>, Hastings
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastings,_Nebraska>, North Platte
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Platte,_Nebraska>, Alliance
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance,_Nebraska>, and Scottsbluff
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottsbluff,_Nebraska>
- *Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) *
- represents the northwestern portion of the Atlanta metropolitan area
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_metropolitan_area>, the
district includes Cartersville
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartersville,_Georgia>, Marietta
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marietta,_Georgia>, and Woodstock
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock,_Georgia>
*Senators on the Joint Committee on Printing:*
- *Senator Richard Shelby, Alabama*
- *Senator Pat Roberts, Kansas*
- *Senator Roger Wicker, Mississippi*
- *Senator Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota*
- *Senator Tom Udall. New Mexico*
--
Dr. Rachel Mattson
Manager of Special Projects,
La MaMa Archives
m. 917. 216.1426
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