[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 157 (Sunday, November 9, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12416-S12417]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MUSEUM AND LIBRARY SERVICES TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS OF 1997
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to the consideration of S. 1505, introduced earlier today by
Senator Jeffords.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The clerk
will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 1505) to make technical and conforming
amendments to the Museum and Library Services Act, and for
other purposes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the immediate
consideration of the bill?
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, may I call upon my colleague, the esteemed
Chairman of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, to clarify a
matter that is addressed in the bill to provide technical amendments to
the Museum and Library Services Act?
Mr. JEFFORDS. I am pleased to answer any question that the Senator
from Hawaii may have.
Mr. INOUYE. Under the provisions of the Library Services and
Construction Act, Public Law 98-480, Native Hawaiian organizations are
authorized to provide library services to Native Hawaiians. One of our
most exemplary Federal grantees, Alu Like, Inc., has been administering
the Native Hawaiian Library Project since 1985.
Native Hawaiian children in the State's public school system start
school well behind other students when it comes to crucial vocabulary
skills. Hawaiian children enter kindergarten with lower vocabulary
scores than other children (12th percentile: Peabody Picture Vocabulary
Test--Revised, 1989), and in achievement tests of basic skills,
Hawaiian students continue to perform below national norms and other
groups in Hawaii. On the Reading Comprehension Subtest of the Stanford
Achievement Test administered by the Hawaii State Department of
Education in the spring of 1990, Hawaiian eighth grade students scored
at the 18th percentile, the lowest of the four principal ethnic groups
in Hawaii. A recent study in Hawaii by the Governor's Council for
Literacy shows that Native Hawaiian adults have low literacy rates,
with 30 percent at the lowest level compared with 19 percent of adults
statewide.
It is these statistics, and the need to assure that parents have
reading skills sufficient to foster learning and reading skills in
their preschool and school-age children, that the Native Hawaiian
Library Project has sought to address. This has been made possible
because of the federal resources that have been made available under
the Library Services and Construction Act. The initial funding for this
program was $590,123 and 1985, and because of the program's documented
effectiveness, it has been funded each year thereafter for a total of
$7,223,297. Funding in the past fiscal year was $635,025.
It is my understanding that in enacting the Museum and Library
Services Act, the Congress sought to extend the authority for the
library services programs that have proven to be so effective in
enriching the reading and vocabulary skills of Americans of all ages.
In our State, it has enabled Native Hawaiian children to begin to
perform on a par with other students, it has effected a reduction in
the drop-out rates of Native Hawaiian students and demonstrated a
marked improvement in their performance on achievement tests, and has
enabled adults with new literacy skills to secure employment.
It is because of the importance of this program to the Native
Hawaiian people of our State that I seek your clarification that the
bill to provide technical and conforming amendments to the Museum and
Library Services Act, specifically section 6 of that measure, is
intended simply to maintain the status quo relative to the federal
support for Native Hawaiian library services by extending the authority
for grants to Native Hawaiian organizations for this purpose.
Mr. JEFFORDS. The Senator from Hawaii is correct in his reading of
the
[[Page S12417]]
bill. It is our intent to assure that .25 percent of appropriated funds
are reserved to provide services to Hawaiian Natives. This authority
did exist under the Library Services and Construction Act.
Mr. INOUYE. I thank the chairman of the Labor and Human Resources
Committee for this clarification and urge my colleagues to support this
measure.
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be
deemed read a third time and passed; that the motion to reconsider be
laid upon the table; and that any statements relating to the bill
appear at the appropriate place in the Record.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The bill (S. 1505) was deemed read the third time and passed, as
follows:
S. 1505
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Museum and Library Services
Technical and Conforming Amendments of 1997''.
SEC. 2. APPOINTMENT OF EMPLOYEES.
Section 206 of the Museum and Library Services Act (20
U.S.C. 9105 et seq.) is amended--
(1) by redesignating subsection (b) as subsection (c); and
(2) by inserting after subsection (a) the following:
``(b) Appointment and Compensation of Technical and
Professional Employees.--
``(1) In general.--Subject to paragraph (2), the Director
may appoint without regard to the provisions of title 5,
United States Code, governing the appointment in the
competitive service and may compensate without regard to the
provisions of chapter 51 or subchapter III of chapter 53 of
such title (relating to the classification and General
Schedule pay rates), such technical and professional
employees as the Director determines to be necessary to carry
out the duties of the Institute.
``(2) Number and compensation.--The number of employees
appointed and compensated under paragraph (1) shall not
exceed \1/5\ of the number of full-time regular or
professional employees of the Institute. The rate of basic
compensation for the employees appointed and compensated
under paragraph (1) may not exceed the rate prescribed for
level GS-15 of the General Schedule under section 5332 of
title 5.''.
SEC. 3. SPECIAL LIBRARIES.
Section 213(2)(E) of the Museum and Library Services Act
(20 U.S.C. 9122(2)(E)) is amended--
(1) by inserting ``or other special library'' after ``a
private library''; and
(2) by inserting ``or special'' after ``such private''.
SEC. 4. RESERVATIONS.
Section 221(a)(1) of the Museum and Library Services Act
(20 U.S.C. 9131(a)(1)) is amended--
(1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``1\1/2\ percent'' and
inserting ``1.75 percent''; and
(2) in subparagraph (B), by striking ``4 percent'' and
inserting ``3.75 percent''.
SEC. 5. MAINTENANCE OF EFFORT.
The second sentence of section 223(c)(1)(A)(i) of the
Museum and Library Services Act (20 U.S.C. 9133(c)(1)(A)(i))
is amended to read as follows: ``The amount of the reduction
in the allotment for any fiscal year shall be equal to the
allotment multiplied by a fraction--
``(I) the numerator of which is the result obtained by
subtracting the level of such State expenditures for the
fiscal year for which the determination is made, from the
average of the total level of such State expenditures for the
3 fiscal years preceding the fiscal year for which the
determination is made; and
``(II) the denominator of which is the average of the total
level of such State expenditures for the 3 fiscal years
preceding the fiscal year for which the determination is
made.''.
SEC. 6. SERVICE TO INDIAN TRIBES.
Section 261 of the Museum and Library Services Act (20
U.S.C. 9161) is amended--
(1) in the section heading, by striking ``INDIAN TRIBES''
and inserting ``NATIVE AMERICANS''; and
(2) by striking ``to organizations'' and all that follows
through ``such organizations'' and inserting ``to Indian
tribes and to organizations that primarily serve and
represent Native Hawaiians (as the term is defined in section
9212 of the Native Hawaiian Education Act (20 U.S.C. 7912) to
enable such tribes and organizations''.
SEC. 7. NATIONAL LEADERSHIP GRANTS OR CONTRACTS.
Section 262 of the Museum and Library Services Act (20
U.S.C. 9162) is amended--
(1) in the section heading, by striking ``NATIONAL
LEADERSHIP GRANTS OR CONTRACTS'' and inserting ``NATIONAL
LEADERSHIP GRANTS, CONTRACTS, OR COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS'';
(2) in subsection (a)--
(A) by striking ``program awarding national leadership
grants or contracts'' and inserting ``program of awarding
grants or entering into contracts or cooperative
agreements''; and
(B) by striking ``Such grants or contracts'' and inserting
``Such grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements'';
(3) in subsection (b)--
(A) in the section heading, by striking ``(b) Grants or
Contracts'' and inserting ``(b) Grants, Contracts, or
Cooperative Agreements;'' and
(B) in paragraph (1), by inserting ``or cooperative
agreements,'' after ``contracts''; and
(C) in paragraph (2), by striking ``Grants and contracts''
and inserting ``Grants, contracts, and cooperative
agreements''.
SEC. 8. CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERROR.
Section 262(a)(3) of the Museum and Library Services Act
(20 U.S.C. 9162(a)(3)) is amended by striking ``preservation
of digitization'' and inserting ``preserving or
digitization''.
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