Subject: Passing the Telecom. Act (fwd) Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1998 222134 -0500 (CDT) From: "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org> To: emfguru@hotmail.com -------------------------------------------------- ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1998 01:57:58 From: marjlundquist@usa.net To: rbeavers@llion.org Subject: Passing the Telecom. Act About a week or so ago I sent an explanation of why the U.S. Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which Roy posted with one editorial comment. He disagreed with me when I said that this was a Republican effort, saying the bill had strong BIPARTISAN support. Roy is correct that the Telecom. Act had strong bipartisan support; almost all member of Congress voted to pass it, and the favorable votes came from a large majority of BOTH parties. Nevertheless, I stand by my statement that this was, in essence, a Republican project, and I'd like to explain why. First of all, consider the politics of Congress. In the early 1990s, the Democrats had control of Congress. This meant that the committee and subcommittee chairmen were all Democrats. I attended a hearing on Capitol Hill in February, 1993, before a House committee or subcommittee--I forget which--that was chaired by Ed Markey (D-MA). This was under what was then the Telecommunications and Finance Committee (or Subcommittee). One of the people testifying was Tom Wheeler, the Executive Director of the CTIA. At the time a big scare had erupted over cellular telephones; Larry King had interviewed a fellow whose wife had died of brain cancer not very long after she had begun using a cellular telephone. Tom Wheeler took the opportunity of testifying to mention that the CTIA had done a review, and all the evidence indicated that cellular telephones were perfectly safe. In other words, there was no cancer hazard from using them, he assured the Congressmen. Some years later, I got the transcripts of this hearing and reviewed them, as anyone can do. These transcripts show clearly that the Republican members of this committee believe Mr. Wheeler. In fact, there were enough statements of support for industry that came from the Republicans that Markey felt the need to publicly remind everybody that the data were not so clearcut, and the final word on the safety of this technology had not yet been heard. In other words, he warned everybody not to take what industry said at face value. Fast-forward to the point when the Republicans got control of Congress -- meaning that now all the Committee and Subcommittee Chairmen were Republicans, instead of Democrats. What happened? Well, one item on the Republican agenda was: pass a Telecommunications Act! There was one bill in the House, another in the Senate. The Republicans made sure they came up for votes. Then, because they were different bills, a joint conference committee had to meld them into a single bill. Within approximately 12 hours of this joint conference committee completing its work, this bill was being voted on in both houses of Congress! Some members of Congress complained about the rush to a vote. "What's the rush? I haven't had time to read this bill. Let's postpone the vote for two weeks, so I can read what I'm voting on." [I've made up the quote, but these sentiments were expressed by real people; go and read the Congressional Record for February 1, 1996, to see who said what.] The Republicans were in control of Congress. They set the rules. And they wanted an immediate vote, which they got. Only the few members who had been on the joint conference committee knew what was in this bill. Everybody else had to take on faith what these people said was in it, because they had had no opportunity to read it. Naturally, the joint conference committee members had only glowing words for the bill so it was passed. Point #1: A bill did not get pushed through the subcommittees and committees for voting, and did not get pushed through the joint conference committee, until the Republicans got control of Congress. Point #2: The Republicans had professed great faith in the industry testimony as to the safety of the technology, even in a climate where lots of others were raising questions. Now, consider the Congressional votes. When you look at who voted AGAINST this bill (or failed to vote for it), these members of Congress were overwhelmingly Democrats. It was Democrats who were skeptical of the industry assurances of safety. It was Democrats who resented the "steamroller" tactics of forcing a hasty vote on a bill hardly anyone had read. It was Democrats who resisted these pressure tactics. And this is why, despite the fact that both parties voted in strong support of the Telecom. Act of 1996, just as Roy said, I steadfastly maintain that this Act is basically a product of the Republican party. The Republican party is the party of business, especially so when there is a people-versus-big-business issue. This Act contained a pre-emption clause which was intended to nullify a Constitutional amendment intended to protect the people. That is a Republican inclusion, depriving the people of something the Constitution of the USA gave them, in order to help out this new industry (one that the American public did NOT want, by the way). If the Democrats had maintained control of Congress, there would be NO Telecom. Act today. -- Marjorie Lundquist ____________________________________________________________________ Get free e-mail and a permanent address at http://www.netaddress.com/?N=1 Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html