Subject: Congress passes S. 800 - action alert (Kelley)
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1999 122747 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Roy L. Beavers"
To: emfguru
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1999 09:15:09 -0700
From: Libby Kelley
To: rbeavers@llion.org
Subject: Congress passes S. 800 - action alert
Friends and Colleagues:
The article in the Washington Post today, below, or, see W. Post, Metro in
Brief, October 15, 1999, announced that Senator Daschle has dropped his
attempt to mandate siting a Bell Atlantic Mobile cell tower in Rock Creek
Park. So, we won that round. Or have we?
The reason Daschle and the rest of the members of Congress may have
backed off on this proposal is the "E-911" ACT, known as S. 800, the
Wireless Communication and Public Safety Act of 1999 passed on Tuesday with
only 2 no votes!! Now, Bell Atlantic Mobile and the other carriers have
another, tougher legislative mandate. -rapid deployment of an end-to-end
communications system for national security and public safety reasons.
Further, with the immunity from liability clause, the entire
telecommunications industry is poised to operate all wireless
communications as a public utility in our every days lives and not be
accountable for it should there ever be harm or injury (or, even a break in
service). Thus, the proposal for siting towers in Rock Creek Park may not
be over, it may just been granted a tough new edge over public
opposition. Let's not "wait and see" - it is time to take action. Apathy
is consent
This enrolled bill is on President's Clinton's desk. We can let him know
what we think about this Act. You might consider sending him an email:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/Mail/html/Mail_President.html.
The President may sign this Act into law at any time.
Here is a copy of the enrolled bill:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c106:./temp/~c106qF4Gpd
Libby Kelley
Daschle Gives Up Fight to Allow Phone Towers in
Rock Creek Park
By Stephen C. Fehr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 15, 1999; Page B09
Congress has agreed to withdraw a provision in the
District's budget bill
that allows the construction of two cellular telephone
antenna towers in
Rock Creek Park, lawmakers said yesterday.
The retreat by Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle
(D-S.D.),
who inserted the tower measure over the objection of
President Clinton
and lawmakers in both parties, was disclosed as the
Republican-led
House approved the District's $4.7 billion budget for
the third time
yesterday.
GOP lawmakers also agreed to restore a 15.6 percent pay
raise for D.C.
Council members, to $92,500, after previously slashing
it. They also said
they would increase--from $50 an hour to $60--the cap on
fees paid to
private attorneys for special education plaintiffs in
suits against the D.C.
school district.
Daschle's reversal was abrupt. A week ago, he told
reporters he was
"absolutely" still in support of the Bell Atlantic
Mobile towers.
"I'll call you from the park someday," he joked.
Phone calls to his spokeswoman were not returned
yesterday. Daschle
had defended the amendment, citing the need for cellular
service in the
park to make it safer for joggers and bikers. He also
said federal land
must be made available to wireless services under the 1996
Telecommunications Act, providing the companies prove
the service is
needed and that it meets environmental regulations.
Removing the cell tower provision does not necessarily
mean the towers
won't be built. The National Capital Planning
Commission, the federal
government's planning agency for the region, could still
approve the
towers. Daschle's rider, requested by Bell Atlantic
Mobile, would have
allowed the tower construction regardless of what the
planning
commission decided.
A Bell Atlantic Mobile spokeswoman said yesterday that
the company
wasn't aware of the change and declined further comment.
The phone company has tried for five years to put up two
towers in Rock
Creek Park, where valleys and foliage prevent clear,
uninterrupted phone
conversations. The company settled on two locations: the
tennis center,
with a 100-foot-tall tower; and a maintenance lot on
Military Road, where
a 130-foot tower would go.
Opponents, dominated by local residents, say the towers
would disturb
the park's aesthetics and could lead to additional
towers there. Other
critics, including the D.C. Council, Mayor Anthony A.
Williams (D) and a
host of other local and regional governments, said
Daschle had no right to
interfere with the planning commission's review process.
"If Congress and Daschle were to step back and let the
process take its
course, that's very good news," said D.C. Council member
Phil
Mendelson (D-At Large).
The budget vote--211 to 205, mostly along party
lines--was an exercise
intended to score political points but do little to
resolve an impasse over
the city's spending plan for the fiscal year that began
Oct. 1. After the
Senate votes on D.C.'s budget, the plan's fate will be
decided by House,
Senate and White House negotiators.
Even with the changes, such as the antenna towers,
Clinton's budget
advisers said yesterday, the new bill "makes virtually
no significant
improvements" from the one he vetoed Sept. 28. Clinton's
rejection of the
bill, he said then, stemmed from a belief that Congress
should not interfere
in decisions made by the local District government by
attaching so-called
social riders to the bill that ban the use of medical
marijuana and
drug-needle exchanges.
The District has been operating at last year's budget
levels under a
temporary spending resolution that expires Thursday.
Lawmakers are
trying to reach an agreement on a permanent D.C. budget
by then. Before
the negotiations begin, Republicans wanted to try
pushing the D.C.
spending plan a third time to embarrass the president by
accusing him of
being soft on drugs.
"The Republicans would rather have 'Beat Up on Bill
Clinton Day' than sit
down in a rational way to work out our differences,"
said Rep. David R.
Obey (D-Wis.).
Replied Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. (R-Okla.), chairman of
the D.C.
appropriations subcommittee: "I didn't pick this fight.
. . . The issue is, are
we against drugs? Are you declaring a truce and a
surrender in this
nation's war on drugs?"
Democrats, in a tactic aimed at exposing the GOP
majority's strategy, said
they would agree to keep in the social riders--including
medical marijuana
and the needle exchange. But the Democrats said the
Republicans would
have to agree to a rider allowing the District to spend
city funds providing
legal assistance for lawsuits seeking voting
representation in Congress for
the city.
Republicans didn't take that bait, which the Democrats
said proved they
were not serious about resolving the D.C. budget.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said she has been
ready to
negotiate for several days. "The D.C. appropriation
could probably be
settled by grown-ups sitting down together for a short
time," she said.
© The Washington Post Company
Libby Kelley
Executive Director
Council on Wireless Technology Impacts
aka ~ Ad Hoc Association of Parties Concerned about
the FCC's Radiofrequency Radiation Health and Safety Rules
____________________________
Website: http://www.ccwti.org
Phone - 415-892-1973
Fax - 415-892-3108
Address:
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Novato, California 94945
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com