On Jan. 12, 2016, the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a legislative hearing on four bills including H.R. 1301, the Amateur Radio Parity Act. CAI took the opportunity to submit a statement for the record for the hearing. The purpose of a legislative hearing is for committee members to hear about the proposed legislation – a vote is not taken during a congressional hearing; therefore no action was taken. CAI was pleased to hear Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) express concern about the bill recognizing the importance of private contracts as well as resident’s expectations of community aesthetics.
A special thank you to CAI members who participated in grassroots advocacy efforts by contacting their Members of Congress. These grassroots efforts are absolutely essential and have provided an introduction for the CAI lobbying team to be more effective when meeting with Members of Congress.
CAI statement, by Thomas M. Skiba, CAE, CAI’s Chief Executive Officer, discusses how H.R. 1301 overrides private contracts and interferes with the rights of property owners. Additionally, the statement emphasizes the importance of local control over our communities and suggests amendments to the bill.
“CAI members do not oppose amateur service communications and appreciate the role of amateur service operators in times of national or local emergency. Nevertheless, CAI members strongly support the long-standing principles of state and local control of land use policies and the right of parties to lawfully contract.” – Read the full statement here.
CAI has taken to social media to continue our efforts on the Ham Radio issue. In addition to contacting all of the House Subcommittee members via twitter prior to the hearing, we launched a social media call to action that allows you to tweet directly to your legislators and ask them to OPPOSE H.R. 1301. Visit our Take Action! Center to tweet your legislators! You can also help boost our efforts by e-mailing your Representative, and checking our Take Action! Center frequently for the newest calls to action.
