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 Previous: FCC Opinion Bolsters Federal Preemption over Radio Frequency Interference Matters |  Next: A DX Dream Fulfilled |
 ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, testifies June 11 before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. [Derek Riker, KB3JLF, Photo] |
NEWINGTON, CT, Jul 9, 2003--Additional cosponsors have signed aboard the Amateur Radio Spectrum Protection Act of 2003. Identical versions of the measure, an ARRL initiative, have been introduced in both the US House and Senate. The House version, HR 713, now has 44 cosponsors, while the Senate version, S 537, has five. Now on their third try on Capitol Hill, both measures would require the FCC to provide "equivalent replacement spectrum" to Amateur Radio if the FCC reallocates primary amateur frequencies, reduces any secondary amateur allocations, or makes additional allocations within such bands that would substantially reduce their utility to amateurs.
Florida Rep Florida Rep Michael Bilirakis filed the House version of the bill, HR 713, on February 12. The measure's most recent cosponsors include US representatives JD Hayworth (R-AZ), Paul Gillmor (R-OH), Greg Walden, WB7OCE, (R-OR), Rick Boucher (D-VA), John M. Spratt Jr (D-SC) , Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-NY), Robert Wexler (D-FL), Mike McIntyre (D-NC), Ken Calvert, (R-CA), Joe Wilson (R-SC), and John T. Doolittle (R-CA), Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) and Frank Pallone Jr (D-NJ).
Idaho Sen Michael Crapo introduced the Senate version of the bill, S 537, on March 6. Original cosponsors were Sen Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and Sen Larry Craig (R-ID). Other S 537 cosponsors are US senators Conrad Burns (R-MT), Sen Susan M. Collins (R-ME) and Max Baucus (D-MT). Burns chairs the Senate Communications Subcommittee.
ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, continues to encourage ARRL members to urge their senators and representatives and to cosponsor the bills. Cosponsorhip lends support to legislation while it's in committee. The House bill has been referred to the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet; the Senate bill will be considered by the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. According to Haynie, letters and e-mails are the key to getting legislation passed.
A sample letter is available on the ARRL Web site. Those writing their lawmakers are asked to copy their correspondence to the League via e-mail.
On June 11, Haynie testified on Capitol Hill on behalf of HR 713. He was the last of 11 scheduled witnesses to speak during the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet hearing, "The Spectrum Needs of Our Nation's First Responders." The panel, a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is chaired by Rep Billy Tauzin (R-LA).
"We are indeed a first responder," Haynie said on behalf of the nation's some 680,000 Amateur Radio operators. Ham radio is more than "just having fun playing on the radio. It also produces capable, trained volunteer communicators in systems of emergency telecommunications that are impervious to disasters of all sorts."
Haynie told the subcommittee that hams have lost more than 100 MHz of VHF and UHF spectrum over the past 15 years and that another nearly 360 MHz of VHF and UHF spectrum "has been substantially compromised."
The text of HR 713 and S 537 is available via
the Thomas Web site.
| Previous: FCC Opinion Bolsters Federal Preemption over Radio Frequency Interference Matters | Next: A DX Dream Fulfilled |
