Federal:
Due largely in part to numerous citizen advocates, the Senate did not take up S. 754, the privacy-hostile Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA). According to the New America’s Open Technology Institute and the Center for Democracy and Technology, the bill would have created “incentives for private companies and the government to widely share huge amounts of Americans’ personally identifiable information that will itself then be vulnerable to sophisticated hacking attacks. In the process, the bill also creates massive exemptions from liability for private companies under every major consumer privacy protection law now on the books.” The bill could still see another resurgence/revision this fall, so stay sharp and ready to respond.
State:
We’re still, unfortunately, in a budget impasse here in the state of Illinois. Court orders are keeping K-12 schools and some social services funded, but everything else is on hold or up in the air. The lack of movement on the budget has negatively affected many agencies, services, and local governments. Some institutions, like Eastern Illinois University, are facing furlough days and even layoffs. The Illinois Library Association has come out strongly against Governor Rauner’s budget ideas, which include a property tax freeze: “In addition to securing library grant funding for fiscal year 2016, ILA is most focused on the possibility of a local property tax freeze. There is a strong likelihood that Governor Rauner and Illinois General Assembly will eventually agree to a two year freeze on local property tax levies. All library supporters should make it clear to their local elected officials how devastating a property tax freeze would be for our patrons and residents.” ILA President Jeannie Dilger testified against the freeze earlier this summer, saying: “If the General Assembly were to impose a property tax freeze there is simply no way local libraries could continue to provide necessary service to our residents.” Hopefully the budget will be passed soon; in the meantime, it’s never too late to contact your representatives and advocate for library-friendly legislation.
A quick note: I’m Nicole Helregel, the new Legislative Committee Chair. I’m a Reference & Web Services Specialist in Research & Information Services at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign Library. Please feel free to contact me with updates or questions about legislative issues that affect health science librarians in Illinois.