Budget Negotiations on Hold for a Second Time:

Low power radio has become part of the budget negotiations in Congress. A more detailed description of the most recent legislative action is covered below.

Congress has once again placed the budget negotiations on hold, and thus low power radio, until December 5, 2000. Congress had intended to return on November 14, but because the Presidential election is still undecided, they will wait until after the Thanksgiving recess to resume a very unusual lame-duck (post-election) session. Thus, there will not be any changes to the legislation addressing low power radio during that time.

The time that Representatives and Senators will be home over Thanksgiving is an important opportunity for you to meet with your representatives in Congress and remind them that you care about low power radio. You can find the local offices of your member either in the blue pages of the telephone book, or by looking up your members on the web. See the LPFM index page for more information on contacting Congress and low power radio facts and information.

Most recent legislative action:

On October 26 and 27, 2000 Congress added anti-LPFM language to the Commerce, Justice, State Appropriations bill that will cut back 60%-80% of the low power radio stations. This is the same language that passed the House and was contained in Senator Grams' bill, S.3020. This bill has passed both the House and Senate. As soon as the language was issued, however, the President promised to veto the bill, in part on the grounds that it includes the language harming low power radio. The bill has not yet been sent to the President. See the President's letter in a White House press statement in PDF format here.

Tools to contact Congress:

E-mail, fax or telephone your Senators and Majority Leader Trent Lott and urge them to oppose any effort to cut back or limit low power radio in the Commerce appropriation. To see whether your Senator supports either of the anti-low power radio bills, click here to view the cosponsors to S.2068 (which would eliminate low power radio altogether) and here for the cosponsors to S.3020 (which eliminates 60-80% of low power radio stations).

Message:
The current legislation will cut back 60-80% of low power radio stations. It is not a compromise and will hurt churches, community groups, and neighborhoods across the country.

You may use the following web site to contact your Senators:
http://congress.nw.dc.us/lpr/

To contact Senator Lott--
e-mail: senatorlott@lott.senate.gov
phone: 202.224.6253
fax: 202.224.2262

mailing address:
487 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

For further information on low power radio, see
http://www.mediaaccess.org/programs/lpfm/index.html

Home | FCC & Court Filings | Programs/Policy Areas | Press Releases
Jobs & Internships | Web Resources | About MAP | Contact MAP | Search

© Media Access Project. All rights reserved.
Media Access Project is a non-profit, tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) corporation.

Any comments on this site? Send them to our webmaster.
View our privacy policy.

This page last modified 11/15/00.