Date: Fri, 14 Apr 1995 08:45:24 -0400 (EDT)
From: James McDonough <epin@access.digex.net>
Subject: EPIN Summary


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     SUMMARY OF ELECTRONIC PUBLIC INFORMATION NEWSLETTER
                  VOL. 5, NO. 7; April 7, 1995
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INDEX:

1. CONGRESS PASSES REAUTHORIZATION OF THE PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT
2. US COURTS COLLECT $3 MILLION IN INFORMATION FEES IN FY94
3. G-7 MINISTERS TAKE FIRST STEP TOWARD A GLOBAL GILS

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1. CONGRESS PASSES REAUTHORIZATION OF THE PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT: 
Congress passed without opposition the reauthorization of the
Paperwork Reduction Act last week (4/6), when both house agreed to
the conference report (H.Rtp. 104-99), five years after the law
lapsed. President Clinton is expected to sign the bill (S. 244 as
amended by the House). The bill reauthorizes funding for the Office
of Information and Regulatory Affairs (ORIA) for six years at $8
million a year. It also authorizes ORIA to establish a Government
Information Locator service (GILS) for the executive branch. A
controversial House amendment, opposed by the library community and
the Information Industry Association (IIA), that would have
authorized the director of the Office of Budget and Management to
waive any limits on agency user fees for public information after
an agency meets several criteria, including a notice published in
the Federal Register, was dropped in the final version.

2. US COURTS COLLECT $3 MILLION IN INFORMATION FEES IN FY94: For FY
1994, the U.S. federal courts collected $3.19 million in fees to
access court information via electronic bulletin boards established
at each court. According to Michael Greenwood of the Administrative
Office of the U.S. Courts, the system has 25,000 registered users,
but only 8,000 to 9,000 are active. He said use varies greatly with
some users paying only $2 or $3 a year and others paying up to
$40,000 a year for information. Greenwood said most of the
registered users are organizations or businesses. He said there are
very few "citizens" registered, and admitted the courts have "not
gone out of their way" to advertise their electronic information
service.

3. G-7 MINISTERS TAKE FIRST STEP TOWARD A GLOBAL GILS: The G-7
nations have committed themseleves to developing a Global
Government Information Locator service (GGILS) dealing with
information regarding the environment and the earth's natural
resources. The decision was taken at the Global Information Society
Conference held in Brussells on Feb. 25-26. At that time, the
world's industrialized nations agreed to establish various working
groups to develop the Global Information Infrastructure. Observers
in U.S. are hopeful that the decision to develop a GGILS for
environment and natural resources will lead to a universal GGLIS.

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James McDonough, Editor
Electronic Public Information Newsletter
epin@access.digex.net; Tel:/Fax: (301) 365-3621