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Oppose FY07 EPA Library Budget Cuts

The proposed EPA budget slashes library system funding, hindering agency scientists from doing their jobs effectively.

Tell your Senators to restore funds for continued access to the collections and services of EPA Libraries.

March 11, 2010

Subject:

I am writing to protest plans by the Bush administration to close libraries at the Environmental Protection Agency.  I ask that you intervene now to ensure that EPA’s network of 27 technical libraries remains intact and open to both the public and agency staff.

The Bush administration is already moving ahead with library closures, without waiting for Congress to act on the plan contained in its proposed FY 2007 EPA operations and administration budget.

The proposed cuts, while small in the context of an $8 billion EPA budget, will be devastating:

•	An estimated 50,000 documents on environmental issues that are available nowhere else will be boxed up and inaccessible;
•	Public access to invaluable EPA collections will end; and
•	EPA’s own staff will find it harder to do their jobs without access to their libraries.

More than 10,000 EPA scientists have protested the impending closure of technical research libraries because it would hinder their work.  EPA’s enforcement arm has concluded that library closures will hamper investigation and prosecution of corporate polluters.

The administration’s own studies show that the cuts will actually lose money due to the added professional staff time that will be diverted to tracking down research materials now assembled by the libraries.

I urge you to stop these proposed cuts and instead restore the EPA libraries. Please demonstrate your commitment to the power of information and public education as indispensable tools for safeguarding our environment.

Sincerely,

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