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Filtering Amendment Added to
Appropriations Bill

On September 23, the House Appropriations Subcommittee added by voice vote an Internet filtering amendment to the FY2000 Labor-Health and Human Service-Education appropriations bill. Offered by Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.), the amendment requires federally funded computers in public and school libraries to filter obscenity and child pornography.

ALA’s Washington Office notes that the Istook amendment applies to all federal funds used “for the acquisition or operation of any computer that is accessible to minors and that has access to the Internet,” encompassing grants under the Library Services and Technology Act (the primary federal grant program for libraries), as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation or any other “program or activity of any federal agency.” It also could possibly apply to the e-rate, which could be considered a program of the Federal Communications Commission.

The appropriations bill, including the Istook amendment, is now awaiting action by the full House Appropriations Committee.

Posted October 4, 1999.

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