Dave, This, indeed, is tremendous news! I attribute this in part to the hard work everyone on our Washington Team put in to promote the principles of H. Res. 230, to the impact of the many letters written by our members in response to those who encouraged these letters and to the persuasiveness of Rep. Ross. I cannot address any Division other than the GLD, but I am aware that approximately 500 letters went from GLD members to their Congressmen/women during the last few months. This has had to have an impact which, when added to the work done by Chwat, Joel, et. al helped clear the way for Mr. Ross' amendment to be added to the bill. As part of the educational process, I can say that the Legislative Action Committee has expressed it's belief that successes of this type ought to be used as vehicles to educate our members on the usefulness of their involvement in the legislative process and, also, to educate them as to how their involvement assisted in realizing the success. Well done! Jim Weaver, K8JE Director, Great Lakes Division Chairman, Legislative Action Committee 5065 Bethany Rd. Mason, OH 45040 K8JE@arrl.org; Tel., 513-459-0142; FAX, same ARRL, the Reason Amateur Radio is! Members, the Reason ARRL is! -----Original Message----- From: Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ [mailto:dsumner@arrl.org] Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2006 11:47 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:14013] Outstanding news from the House Commerce Committee Importance: High Joel Harrison has asked me to pass the following along to you, as he is in transit from the NAB Convention in Las Vegas and will not have a chance to email until later. Last night (Wednesday) the House Energy and Commerce Committee (i.e., the full Committee, not just the Telecom subcommittee) completed two days of markup of the "Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006" (the much-talked-about Telecom rewrite bill) and voted to send the bill to the full House for consideration. You may have heard or read in this morning's news that an Internet "network neutrality" amendment to the bill was defeated. The bill does not yet have a number; one will be assigned next week. The outstanding news for us is that the Committee, by voice vote and with the support of Chairman Barton (R-TX), included the attached amendment proposed by Rep. Ross (D-AR). The amendment adds a section to require the FCC, within 90 days of enactment, to study and report on the interference potential of BPL systems. This puts the House Energy and Commerce Committee on record as having concerns about BPL interference. This is a major victory for the ARRL. The amendment was included after significant networking and lobbying by John Chwat's office, support from Rep. Ross and other Members, as well as the assistance in letters and contacts by the officers, Directors and members of ARRL. It wasn't easy to sell the relevance of the BPL provision to the rest of the bill. The amendment received significant opposition by the utility companies, as well as some Committee staff, and the final language that was accepted by the Chairman is not quite as extensive as what we had originally proposed. But it's enough to raise the visibility of the BPL interference issue and to get the FCC's attention. The provision will be included in the legislation considered by the full House. There is also an opportunity for "Report Language" to be included to accompany the bill. If we are vigilant in protecting it against deletion on the House floor, assuming the bill is approved by the House the BPL language will be included in the legislation that goes on to the Senate. In the meantime we will also be working on lining up Senate support. 73, Dave Sumner, K1ZZ