NDD United—a campaign representing 3,200 organizations, including ARL, working to stop budget cuts to core US government functions—has released a 3-minute video that explains the impact of disproportionate cuts in non-defense discretionary (NDD) programs, including education, employment and training, research, public health, public safety, housing, social services, infrastructure, and environmental protection.
The video points out many ways that government improves daily life by funding such services as schools and libraries, scientific research, emergency medical response, food and drug inspection, air traffic control, and road and bridge maintenance. If Congress cannot work together to stop deep cuts—known as “the sequester” or “sequestration”—millions of jobs will be lost and core services will be eliminated.
The video is part of a toolkit that NDD United has created to help people send a message to Congress, the press, and the public. Please consider sharing this message with your networks and your representatives in Congress.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 125 research libraries in the US and Canada. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at https://www.arl.org/.
