Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 09:55:25 -0500 (EST)
From: James McDonough <epin@access.digex.net>
Subject: EPIN Summary

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     SUMMARY OF ELECTRONIC PUBLIC INFORMATION NEWSLETTER
                  VOL. 5, NO. 1; January 13, 1995
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INDEX:

1. REPUBLICANS TO RETHINK ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT INFO
2. NARA COMPLETES DRAFT GUIDANCE ON GILS CORE ELEMENTS
3. REPUBLICANS SEEK JULY PASSAGE OF TELECOMMICATIONS REFORM

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For more information on the complete ELECTRONIC PUBLIC
INFORMATION NEWSLETTER or to receive a FREE sample copy send an
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1. REPUBLICANS TO RETHINK ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT INFO: Government
information dissemination policy is under full review by the
Republican controlled Congress with strong indications that the new
leadership may favor a radical transformation of the old system.
The U.S. House of Representatives, which traditionally is the more
impatient of the two bodies, moved first when last week (1/5) House
Speaker Newt Gingrich and Librarian of Congress James H. Billington
announced the establishment of a congressional new-online public
access information system, called THOMAS, in honor of Thomas
Jefferson. At the same time, the Republican leadership moved to
strip the Joint Committee on Printing of all of its staff, except
its two Republican members. The leadership is negotiating the JCP's
fate along with that of the Joint Committee on the Library (JCL).
As a backdrop to these negotiations, Rep. Scott Klug, R-WI,
introduced (1/4) a House Resolution 20 calling on the appropriate
committees to report legislation to transfer executive branch
printing from the Government Printing Office to the General
Services Administration; transfer the functions of the
Superintendent of Documents to the Library of Congress, and abolish
the JCP and the JCL.

2. NARA COMPLETES DRAFT GUIDANCE ON GILS CORE ELEMENTS: The
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has prepared a
draft of the guidance on how to complete the GILS Core Elements, as
mandated by the Office of Management and Budget's Bulletin 95-01,
released last month. NARA is making the draft publicly available in
order to seek comments from interested participants in the GILS
process. The draft guidance is available in both WordPerfect 5.1
and ASCII form on the NARA gopher. The address is: gopher.nara.gov,
and the path is: /information for archivists and records
managers/GILS Guidance/. Comments were due by January 13.

3. REPUBLICANS SEEK JULY PASSAGE OF TELECOMMICATIONS REFORM: Senate
Majority Leader Robert Dole and the Chairmen of the Senate and
House Commerce Committees indicated last week (1/9) that they would
like to pass telecommunications reform legislation before July 4th.
On the same day, Vice President Al Gore indicated that he thought
the Congress would act on reform legislation this year in the same
bipartisan spirit which marked House approval in 1994 of a reform
measure that died in the Senate.


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ARCHIVE: EPIN Summaries are being archived on the Electronic
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James McDonough, Editor
Electronic Public Information Newsletter
epin@access.digex.net; Tel:/Fax: (301) 365-3621