Subject:  (Beavers) House E911-Bill ignores public health issue.....
Date:     Thu, 18 Feb 1999 070620 -0600 (CST)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To:       emfguru <rbeavers@llion.org>
--------------------------------------------------

Hi everybody:

........The public was not even present at this dirty work was
done.......So much for our "democracy.".......There are THOUSANDS
of industry lobbyists available to "jump" in response to the legislators
when they quickly (secretly) convene to do this kind of thing......The
public was not "at the table."  Certainly none of these congressmen were
representing "the public."  They were representing the BIG $$$$$ that put
them in office and keep them there.....

They should be targeted in the next election for defeat -- regardless of
party!!!.......And, a MAJOR revision of our election laws -- which now
make this possible through the BIG $$$$$ campaign contributions "soft
money" laws -- should be highest in priority when choosing your
candidate!!!......

Tauzin (a former democrat, now a "Republican") has long been a lackey of
the telecom industry.....(And other BIG $$$$$$ interests).....

Please give wide circulation!!!.....(I offer two comments within the text
below.)......

Cheerio....

Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
rbeavers@llion.org................
...It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness... 
.................PEOPLE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN PROFITS...............

......DO YOU KNOW OF OTHERS WHO SHOULD BE ON THIS LIST?????..........

************************************************************************
   
E911, privacy bills head to House floor

   By Jeffrey Silva
       
   WASHINGTONWireless E911 and privacy bills breezed through the House
   Commerce Committee last week, setting the stage for votes on the House
   floor by months end.
   
   The bills, passed by the House telecommunications subcommittee on
   Wednesday and by the full committee on Thursday, inject a higher level
   of safety and protection against unlawful eavesdropping into wireless
   communications.
   
   While the House is expected to approve both measures, the E911 bill
   faces trouble in the Senate from Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.), ranking
   minority member of the Commerce Committee.
   
   Hollings, a recipient of strong campaign finance support from trial
   lawyers, last year raised concerns about an E911 provision giving
   wireless carriers limited liability protection on par with local
   wireline carriers. States would have two years from the bills
   enactment to legislate a different standard of immunity.
   
   Indeed, last week Hollings blasted a bill authored by Senate Commerce
   Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) giving firms limited
   liability protection against lawsuits associated with year-2000
   computer glitches.
   
   House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.),
   having watched wireless E911 and privacy bills languish in the 105th
   Congress, put both bills on a fast track this year so any problems
   could be ironed out early in the session.
   
   A big part of that was accomplished when Tauzin, with backing from
   industry, public safety and heath-care advocates, decided to strip
   federal land antenna-siting provisions from the E911 bill.
[NOT exactly true -- not where "public safety" is concerned....guru....]
   
   The thinking behind the strategy was to avoid potentially fatal
   opposition from the National League of Cities, the National
   Association of Counties and others.
[These groups were "not at the table" when legislation was
dones...guru...]   
   Local officials and citizen activists, despite the old bills heavy
   emphasis on improving antenna siting on federal grounds, feared they
   still would lose their voice in circumstances where wireless carriers
   applied for tower clearances on federal property adjacent to or within
   larger tracts of non-federal land.
   
   The National Park Service did not like the bills federal land
   antenna-siting mandate either, arguing that existing siting law is
   hard enough to square with its obligations under environmental laws.
   
   Still, getting antenna-siting language out of the bill appears to have
   been a pyrrhic victory for some of the bills opponents. States lost
   the chance to receive matching federal fundspossibly millions of
   dollars a yearfor upgrades of 911 public safety answering points, or
   PSAPs.
   
   The money was to have been generated from fees carriers paid
   government agencies to erect antennas on their property.
   
   Activists who decry the explosion of antenna siting because of the
   aesthetic impact and because of fears of health risks from low-power
   mobile phone transmitters also lost out. A portion of the revenue from
   federal siting fees$10 million during five yearswould have been
   earmarked for federal cancer research relative to wireless technology.
   
   The bills designation of 911 as the universal emergency telephone
   number would be a significant improvement from the current situation
   where emergency numbers differ from town to town.
   
   The wireless privacy bill would extend legal protectionlargely limited
   to analog cellular serviceto all analog and digital mobile services.
   In addition, the measure cracks down on unlawful interception and
   disclosure of wireless conversations and on the improper modification
   of radio scanners to enable eavesdropping.
   
   http://www.rcrnews.com/rcrnews/singlenews.html





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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html