Republican lawmakers aim to try to cut funding for libraries affiliated with the American Library Association. The bill got a brief hearing Monday, right before the legislative session adjourns.
Georgia public libraries get some state funding – about $39 million a year, according to lawmakers. Libraries provide reading material that many conservatives find troubling – relating to gender identity and race relations among other topics. And the American Library Association has been part of the effort to provide such material
"This was a great organization," said state Sen. Larry Walker III (R-Perry) to the House Higher Education committee.
Republicans lawmakers said they are not defunding libraries – but they do want to pull state funding if they do business with the American Library Association.
"They’re trying to push down a political agenda on our local libraries and I’m just tired of it," Walker told the committee Monday.
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Walker's bill has gotten considerable blowback from Democrats who view the measure as restrictive of education.
Another Senate bill would have created a rating system for school library books that included “sexually explicit material” and restricted purchases of such books. That bill stalled and never got out of the Senate.
Walker’s bill would also restrict private funding for libraries if those private entities have relationships with the American Library Association.
State Rep. Jasmine Clark (D-Lilburn) suggested that was government overreach.
"I think that’s a dangerous precedent," Clark told Walker, who said he disagreed.
The library bill has passed the Senate. It could pass the House by Thursday’s adjournment, if the House leadership has an appetite for it.