Joel,
It strikes me that relatively little
progress was being made until you got into the saddle and applied your spurs to
the organization’s flanks. I just
have to think there is some relationship between this fact and the progress
that has been made.
Congrats es tnx,
Chairman, ARRL ad hoc Legislative
Action Committee
5065 Bethany Rd., Mason,
OH 45040
Tel.: 513-459-0142;
E-mail: k8je@arrl.org
ARRL:
The reason Amateur Radio Is!
MEMBERS:
The reason ARRL Is!
-----Original Message-----
From: Joel Harrison
[mailto:w5zn@arrl.org]
Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2006
7:16 PM
To: arrl-odv
Subject: [arrl-odv:14022] Update
Greetings,
Since my last report to you just
after our March 30 Washington visit, things have been moving waaaay fast and
almost at warp speed. This past weekend I attended the International DX
Convention in Visalia, CA and am currently leaving the NAB conference in
Las Vegas (I'm on the plane as I write this) on my way to speak at the opening
luncheon of the Southeast VHF Society Conference tomorrow, then on to
Newington for the A&F Committee meeting on Saturday. Individual reports on
these trips will be forthcoming.
What I want to report to you now is
some outstanding work on the part of Sumner, Chwat & Co.and Imlay.
This morning, Dave sent you an email
about the House Telecom Bill, I would like to give you a more detailed report
of the work that went into the result we achieved.
On each of my trips to Washington
since January, I have reported to you that we had a detailed plan we were
working, objectives for each meeting we arranged and attended had been met, but
I had nothing to "bring home" to you yet. I am ecstatic to tell you I
can no longer say that, we now have something for you.
Thanks not to me, but to the
extremely diligent and focused effort in working our plan by Sumner, Chwat
& Co., and Imlay we have been successful in getting H.Res.230 language into
the Telecom Bill in Committee.
Now, this is only one victory and we
have by no means won a war here, but this is an extremely significant victory
for amateur radio. I want to personally thank each of you for your support
of this effort, and for your patience while we worked our plan.
Now, some historical details for
you.
On March 31 at the conclusion of our
last D.C. visit reported to you in ODV 13981, Chwat reported that that the
House Telecom Subcommittee had scheduled opening remarks on a telecom bill for
5pm Tuesday, April 4th, and consideration of the Bill all day on
Wednesday, April 5th. Chwat saw an opportunity for us to possibly
get H.Res.230 language into the bill. Dave and I discussed the matter
and told Chwat to GO. Our position was based on the fact that if we were
not successful it would not kill H.Res.230, however if we were successful in
getting the language into the bill, then our purpose with H.Res.230 would be
accomplished. Further, if we were able to get language into the bill and it
somehow did not survive a full Congressional vote, we still had H.Res.230
active. Frankly, a no-lose scenario.
Chris and Eric scheduled a
critical meeting with Chairman Barton's staff contact at which time
they requested that portions of the H.Res.230 be included in the Title II,
Broadband section.
Eric arranged a very important
visit with one of the key Counsel's to Chairman Joe Barton(R-TX),House Energy
and Commerce Committee, on the BPL issue. Eric was accompanied by Chris
Imlay. This was during the Congressional Recess-in time for impacting
perhaps, the full Committee's consideration of the telecom bill.
Chwat & Co. hadreceived over 20
letters via email and fax that had been sent to Congresswoman Eshoo's (D-CA)
office. Eric handed these over to her Chief of Staff during an in-person
meeting. Her Chief of Staff was very interested in a Minority
supported amendment with Mike Ross to Title II of the Telecom Bill after
receiving the letters from her constituency.
By
April 7, Eric had personally met with 25 of our
targeted 88 Representatives that had input to the Telecom
bill. In Addition to the 88, Chwat & Co. had hand delivered
copies of all of the letters they had received to the
respective Congressional offices. Over 600 letters to 115 House offices
(28 of these offices being part of the 88 targeted) had been handed to the
Representative, taken into a meeting, or delivered to an office with a letter
and a quick meeting with the staffer responsible for telecom issues. (This
is why it is extremely important that Chwat & Co. receive copies of letters
sent to Representatives)
During
sub-committee meetings, no affecting amendments had taken
place as of this date, but most of the offices Chwat &
Co. had met with were interested in supporting ARRL when
amendments would be allowed in the Full Committee. We
then decided to focus our effort in this direction, but first
awaiting the meeting with Chairman Barton's (R-TX) Committee office that
would be forthcoming in the next two week period.
Chwat
and Heis followed this doggedly, literally around the clock. On April 12, Chwat
obtained a copy of the newly released Subcommittee markup and Congressional
staffers had advised us the full committee will begin opening statements when
they return from recess.
On
April 13, Eric reported specifically on a meeting with Congresswoman Barbara
Cubin's (R-WY) staff member, who had received many letters. He was very
knowledgeable of Amateur radio and had quite a few intelligent questions Eric
was able to answer. Cubin's staff person was interested in what
the Chairman says, but took little convincing on the BPL issue. We were
then able to discuss ARRL in general with more detail.
On
April 18, Eric confirmed a meeting with the full Energy and Commerce committee
counsel dealing with telecom issues, including BPL. This meeting was
scheduled for 4pm on Thursday. Imlay briefed Chwat and Heis for the
meeting in addition to providing material to be presented as well.
On
April 20, Chwat & Co. reported on a very informative meeting with the top
staff for the House Energy and Commerce Committee. They noted that the
committee Chairman would not be supportive of including H Res 230
wording into his Manager's Amendment. However, there were rumblings
among committee staff, thanks to our Hill visits and amateur letters,
that the interference issue was of concern to House members on the
committee. We provided his staff an alternative option to have a
concerned committee member (most likely Rep. Mike Ross) introduce a succinct
amendment, that would satisfy ham's concerns, to the bill during next markup of
the bill the following week with bipartisan support from other committee
members. This would engage the Chairman in a dialogue on the issue of a BPL
study. Rep. Ross' office was contacted and they were
supportive of submitting a version of H Res 230 wording as an
amendment. We then provided Ross' office with a draft of the
necessary language to accomplish the goals of ARRL.
On
April 21, we presented our draft language/amendment to the full committee
staff on House Energy and Commerce. They did not have problems with the
language if Rep. Ross were to introduce it, however, they told us they
could not promise it would be considered 'germane' and remain
unopposed. Chwat & Co. continued to network with member offices and
committee staff to gain support for our amendment before the next markup.
On
April 22, Eric advised us it was quite imperative we get a letter from someone
in Chairman Barton's district. Imlay has a client, who just happens to be
a radio amateur, who was attending the NAB conference that lives in Barton's
district. Chris had an upcoming previously scheduled dinner with him and asked
if he would prepare a letter, which he gladly did. This was sent to Eric who
was able to personally deliver it into the hands of Barton's staff.
On April
24, Eric spoke with Rep. Otter (R-ID) and Rep. Myricks (R-NC) offices
concerning BPL test sites that had been shut down due to interference.
Both offices were open to creating a dialogue come Wednesday during the
telecom bill markup. This was a very good
opportunity. Eric also reported to committee staff that he had
confirmed that Rep. Ross would be more inclined to vote for the Telecom bill if
his amendment was included. Committee staff retorted that they had
experienced some 'push back' from utility companies that this amendment was
"redundant, a delay tactic and a waste of money." We answered
this comment and others with Sumner's fluent help and believed we
solved the problem.
The
next day, Eric was on the Hill all day, dropping off our material with a
memo attachment and speaking with staff if they had a quick second. The
vote was scheduled for Wednesday, and we believed we had great
momentum building.
On
Tuesday, April 25, Rep. Ross office advised us that he would offer
the amendment on Wednesday. The Committee was preparing for the markup
Tuesday evening. Eric was on the hill until very late that evening to
address any questions that arose, and Dave, Chris and I were on hot standby to
immediately assist Eric with any questions or facilitation as required, and
especially to assist Rep Ross' office staff in case they had questions in
the night in preparation for this markup.
On
Wednesday morning, the committee staff contacted Rep. Ross' office to ask
that the amendment be moved to Title V of the bill. This section fit our
amendment very nicely and we were agreeable.At this same time, however, the
Chairman was continuing to hear the views of utility companies and we were
getting great pressure from the Chairman's staff. Through our efforts the
past few days, including the letter from Chris Imlay's friend and
information from Sumner, instead of killing our amendment, the committee staff
agreed to allow the amendment be read, then withdrawn for further
consideration. This meant we would have more time to educate
committee staff, as we really got their attention this past week with this
amendment and the large amount of bipartisan support it had (due to the letters
and our meetings). The 'delay' would permit us to network in the Senate
Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and work towards the Conference
Committee for final passage of this bill. This was the Chairman's
Committee Staff suggestion and was beginning to look like all we could achieve.
We
increased our efforts dramatically on the Senate side, as the Senate is
still working on their version of the telecom rewrite. There is also
another bill by Sen. Liebermann (D-CT), S. 1725, named the 'Assure
Emergency and Interoperable Communications for First Responders Act of 2005' that we are lobbying to have our
wording added to the bill when it goes to the floor.
Last evening,
while I was attending the Amateur Radio Reception at the NAB Convention I
received a call from Sumner indicating that C-Span was airing the committee
hearing, and the Ross amendment had been offered, and instead of it being
withdrawn for further consideration (based on the agreement with Chairman
Barton's staff) Chairman Barton "accepted" the amendment and it was
voted and approved by the committee. We waited until this morning to advise you
of this just to make sure what was heard was correct! We can attribute the
"change of position" of Chairman Barton to a number of things, most
important is the letter Chris Imlay was able to solicit as well as the
support that the amendment had from a majority of the committee members.
Lot's
of hard work still remains, however for a very brief moment we can take a
breath and smile.
Thank
you for allowing us to work our plan and again my personal sincere thanks and
recognition for the effort of Sumner, Chwat & Co. and Imlay.
73 Joel
W5ZN