Annual Report 1999/2000 

Joint MLA/AAHSL Legislative Task Force

The Joint MLA/AAHSL Legislative Task Force supports Goal 5 of the Strategic Plan: MLA provides leadership in national information policy.

The Task Force met in Washington, DC, October 26-27, 1999.

At the fall meeting, the task force heard several reports. Bob Oakley, Washington Representative of the American Association of Law Libraries addressed the work of the library associations (ALA, ARL, SLA, MLA, AALL) to seek balanced legislation on the issues of database and the Uniform Computer Transactions Act (UCITA). Kent Smith, Deputy Director of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) addressed the status of FY2000 NLM funding, the development of PubMed Central, and plans for development of a new long-range plan for the Library. Dale Dirks, President of Health and Medicine Counsel of Washington, gave the legislative update.

Twelve Capitol Hill visits were made to staff of the Senate and House Labor, Health, Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittees to address FY2000 NLM appropriations, telemedicine, database legislation, and a national fund for health research. Briefing packets were distributed during the Capitol Hill visits which included fact sheets on each of these issues.

The task force approved the following motion:

• MOVED, that the MLA Governmental Relations Committee support the recommendation of the Joint MLA/AAHSL Legislative Task Force that Representative Rick Boucher (D-VA, 9th District) receive the 2000 MLA Award for Distinguished Public Service, and further
• MOVED, that this recommendation be forwarded to the MLA Board of Directors for its consideration.

At the meeting, the task force approved the following legislative priorities for 1999/2000:

Drive: MLA and AAHSL take the lead on driving the outcome or direction of the following priorities

• NLM Funding
  • Appropriations
  • Reauthorization
• Telemedicine/Telehealth
• Distance Education
• Access to Health Information
  • Health Professionals
  • Consumers

Influence: MLA and AAHSL work in coalition with other organizations to influence the outcome or direction of the following priorities

• Information Access—Permanent public access to government information
• Intellectual Property and Copyright
  • Licensing
  • Database Protection
  • Distance Education
  • Anti-circumvention Technologies
  • Copyright Term Extension
• Medical Research Trust Fund
• National Information Infrastructure/High Performance Computing and Communications
• Next Generation Internet and Internet 2 (IT2)
• Telecommunications
  • Universal Service
  • Internet Filtering

Monitor: MLA and AAHSL monitor the following priorities

• Computerized Patient Records/Privacy
• Managed Care Reform

In November, working with Dale Dirks and Gavin Lindberg of Health and Medicine Counsel of Washington, Task Force Chair Gary Byrd sent letters to cosponsors of H.R. 354, the Collections of Information Antipiracy Act of 1999 urging them to reconsider their position on the bill and support H.R. 1858, the Consumer and Investor Access to Information Act of 1999.

Plans for the April 10-11, 2000, meeting are underway, and include meeting with several staff from the American Library Association Washington Office, the Association of American Medical Colleges, Capitol Hill staff, and presenting the 2000 MLA Award for Distinguished Public Service to Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA).

MOTION

This report is informational and requires no action by the Board of Directors.

Committee Personnel

MLA Members
Marianne Puckett, Vice-chair, GRC Chair (6/96-5/01)
Frieda Weise, MLA President (6/99-5/00)
Carla J. Funk, MLA Executive Director
Logan Ludwig, Ph.D., GRC Chair-designate (6/98-5/01)
Lynne Siemers (6/96-5/00)
Mary M. Langman, Staff Liaison

AAHSL Members
Gary Byrd, Chair (11/95-00)
Carol Jenkins, AAHSL President (11/99-00)
Diana Cunningham (11/98-02)

Ada Seltzer (11/96-00)
Edward Tawyea (11/97-01)

Washington Representative
Dale Dirks, President
Gavin Lindberg, Legislative Director
Health and Medicine Counsel of Washington
Washington, DC