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| Appropriations Request | |
| Posted: April 4, 2009 | |
Reading is Fundamental |
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| Amount Requested: $ 28 million |
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| The Reading Is Fundamental program enhances child literacy by providing millions of underserved children with free books for personal ownership and reading encouragement from the more than 18,000 locations throughout all fifty states, Washington, D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Last year alone, RIF provided over 16 million new books to 4.5 million of the nation’s youngest and most at-risk children, including those who are homeless, disabled, low-income, on military bases, in foster care, and those without access to libraries. Moreover, RIF leverages the federal dollars by requiring nearly all local programs to fund 25 percent of the cost of the books. Thus, in 2008, an additional $8.5 million was raised by local communities to support book ownership. I joined over 100 of my colleagues in signing a letter of support for this funding to the Appropriations Committee. |
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| Recipient's address: 1825 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20009 | |