Oh, Ye Merry Ladies and Gentlemen It came to pass on Thursday, the 22nd of December /anno Domini/ 2022, that Congressman Bill Johnson (OH-6) delivered our Christmas gift to the Members — he filed H.R. 9670 — the /Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act/. It is the culmination of years of work with multiple potential sponsors to obtain Congressional sponsorship to fulfill our promise to the Members that we would seek a Congressional mandate to eliminate all land use restrictions that prohibit, restrict or impair the ability of an Amateur Radio Operator from operating and installing amateur station antennas on property subject to the control of the Amateur Radio Operator. The official ARRL press release appears at: http://www.arrl.org/news/rep-bill-johnson-introduces-bill-to-eliminate-priva... A copy of H.R. 9670 is enclosed. You are free to share the news of the filing and a copy of the Bill with the Members. We encourage you to do so. The Bill enclosed represents a year of work with Rep. Johnson, his staff and House Legislative Counsel to obtain language that our Members need and Rep. Johnson believes he can pass. We can't thank Rep. Johnson, Laura Wilson, his Legislative Director, and Mike Smullen, his Chief of Staff enough for their efforts and patience. In a personal meeting with Rep. Johnson, he assured us he would not only file the Bill, but that he intended to pass it. You should also extend your thanks to Director Tom Abernethy, Vice Director Lee Cooper, Former Director Fred Hopengarten and FCC Counsel David Siddall for the wit, wisdom and grit they invested in midwifing this opportunity for our Members to be freed from the bondage of CC&Rs. Why file H.R.9670 or for that matter, H.R. 9664, in the waning days of the 117th Congress? To riff on Donald Rumsfeld: "you go to war with the army you have ... ." Until now, we did not have a commitment by our sponsors on the language of either Bill; as soon as agreement was reached the choice was to wait until the 118th Congress convened, or plant our flag on the territory we had captured. With H.R. 9664, by filing now we have created leverage we can use in the New Year to attempt to persuade the FCC to being moving all pending Amateur Radio matters. Its filing by a Member of the Energy & Commerce Committee is a clear signal that the ARRL is serious about breaking the FCC log jam. We have discussed with Rep. Lesko filing additional "git it done" legislation to move other pending Amateur Radio petitions. The successful filing of H.R. 9664 will lend substance to our declaration to the FCC that we are done waiting for their cows to come home and that additional legislation may follow. Filing H.R. 9670 now permits us to begin building support from our Members, our allies and potential House and Senate sponsors. We have been handicapped in obtaining co-sponsors by our inability to confirm to them that the language we presented would be the actual language. Asking for a commitment to legislation whose language remains fluid is the equivalent of asking the potential sponsor out on a blind date — their concern always is that their date might turn out to be Marie Laveau. That risk is now off the table. Another benefit to filing H.R. 9670 now is that Rep. Johnson is rumored to be in the running to become Chairman of Energy & Commerce in the 188th Session starting in January 2023. His filing now strengthens his commitment to the ARRL and the Bill and it also provides he and his staff the foundation on which to begin assembling co-sponsors and committed supporters for 2023. A committee chairman's legislation has a much higher probability of passage. If he becomes Chairman, we will be riding the strong horse. We don't yet have a home run, but with the filing of these bills and two strong sponsors, our Members are now on third. As Holmes shouted to Watson, "the game's a'foot! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! -- ______________________________________ John Robert Stratton N5AUS West Gulf Division Office:512-445-6262 Cell:512-426-2028 P.O. Box 2232 Austin, Texas 78768-2232 *______________________________________*