Unions oppose EPA closing its libraries

EPA has begun closing 11 libraries in the agency's regional offices and in one of its research centers. Four unions representing more than 10,000 EPA scientists, engineers, technical specialists, and support staff are opposing the move. President George W. Bush's budget plan for fiscal 2007 proposes cutting $2 million, or 80%, of the funding for EPA's 26 libraries, but Congress has not yet passed an appropriations bill approving the reduction. The unions are calling for congressional appropriators to maintain funding for the libraries, saying that tens of thousands of original EPA research documents will soon become unavailable. The unions say some of the library collections are getting dispersed without procedures to ensure that important documents, most of which are not available electronically, are not lost. The agency responds that it will save money and operate more efficiently by making the EPA materials in regional libraries available electronically, and that the many documents that exist only on paper will still be available through interlibrary loans.