To the Board: We have had in the past day and a half several events that have created an opportunity for ARRL in our legislative effort that we did not anticipate. This opportunity called for an immediate action that we have taken that you need to know about right now. In acting on these events, we have protected the Board's prerogative in all respects, as explained below. On Tuesday evening, Frank McCarthy at the Keelen Group received a call from the Chief of Staff of Senator Nelson's office. She told Frank that Nelson was receiving large amounts of critical mail from Florida amateur radio operators chastising Nelson for holding up the Parity Act last Fall. Frank replied diplomatically that ARRL had not asked for any such mail to be sent, but we did report to our membership factually in December that the only obstacle to passage of the Bill was Senator Nelson's hold. Frank said that we were looking forward to working with Senator Nelson to address his concerns going forward. Nelson's Chief of Staff told Frank that the Senator had as a "high priority" the passage of the Parity Act "early in this new Congress" and that they would work with ARRL on it right away. This opportunity was created as the result of our grasssroots campaign conducted in the last term of Congress. Today, without any action on the part of anyone associated with ARRL, Dan Henderson received (at ARRL's "reginfo" e-mail address) from Representative Courtney's office an e-mail saying that Courtney had received from Representative Kinzinger's office a draft Bill, identical to the compromise Bill that we advocated last year in Congress. Courtney's office said that they were looking to drop the Bill immediately in order to get on the markup calendar in the House on January 23. They wanted to know if the Bill was OK with us. After conferring with President Roderick, I instructed Chris Imlay to respond to Courtney's office and confirm that the Bill was identical to that supported by ARRL last term. He has done that. We are aware that the Board wishes at its upcoming meeting to discuss the Bill and possibly some modifications to it. Another issue is the cost of duplicating the legislative advocacy effort of the past two years. None of these discussions is at all prejudiced by the immediate reintroduction of the Parity Act in the House by Kinzinger and Courtney. Once the Bill is dropped, we are not under any obligation to lift a finger or spend a dime to advocate for it. Nor are the language or provisions of the Bill carved in stone. If there are any changes called for by the Board at the upcoming meeting or otherwise, we can (1) advocate an amendment to it; (2) suggest some report language to clarify any of its terms or provisions; and/or (3) take any clarifications or minor modifications to the FCC after the Bill passes. The FCC will have to do a full notice and comment rulemaking after passage of the Bill. Most importantly, the fortunate combination of Nelson's softened position and the potential early markup of this Bill in the House portends a possible fast re-passage of the Bill in the House in a matter of weeks, and a smooth and early passage by unanimous consent in the Senate, at a tiny fraction of the cost of the last two years' advocacy. Let me know if you have any questions. 73, Tom Tom Gallagher - NY2RF Chief Executive Officer ARRL Headquarters ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio(tm) 860 594 0404 cell 704 907 7158 tgallagher@arrl.org<mailto:tgallagher@arrl.org>