LibGuides: Chapter Topics ~ Spring 2023: Legislative Report

Chapters Council Legislative Report

The ACRL Government Relations Committee has met twice—in November and March—since the last newsletter. The major topic of the November meeting was streamlining the Legislative Agenda. The 2021 ACRL Legislative Agenda was 19 pages long, whereas ALA’s Legislative Agenda was only two pages. The committee felt this streamlining could be accomplished by cutting items from the agenda and shortening the sections for the remaining items. The remainder of the meeting involved discussing which agenda items to focus on (legislation that is active or that is anticipated to become active) and which items can be put on a watchlist or eliminated altogether. The committee planned to have a first draft ready by February 10.

During the March meeting the first draft was reviewed. The following items are on this year’s Legislative Agenda:

· Critical Race Theory

· Federal Funding for Libraries

· Net Neutrality

· Open Access to Federally Funded Research

· Affordable College Textbook Act

The following items are on the Watchlist:

· DACA

· Consumer Data Privacy

· Accessible Instructional Materials

The FDLP Modernization Act has been removed from the Watchlist and nothing has really been done regarding this Act for the past five years.

The committee decided to add a new section to the document: Court Cases of Interest. This section would give a very short description of a particular case, such as the Internet Archive, and then link out to further information on the case.

The next draft of the Legislative Agenda was due April 14 with the goal of having the final draft completed no later than May 5.

Laura Hall

Legislation Representative, ACRL Chapters Council