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H.R. 5252 from page 1............................................. Under the bill, local govemments would lose the bill back). Solis' and Watson's full statements are authority to enforce local laws pertaining to the use of available at www.cacities.ora/telecom. local rights-of-way, with enforcement resting with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) - Unfortunately, the House Rules Committee voted 3,000 miles away from Califomia in Washington, to oppose floor consideration of both the Miller-Davis D.C. The bill is also silent on the appropriate forum and Solis-Watson amendments, leaving no way to to resolve rights-of-way disputes, leaving that author- improve the bill before it reached the House floor. ity to the FCC. Cities' Outreach Made A Difference The COPE Act is silent on the issue of build-out. In addition, while the measure includes an anti- Thanks are also in order to all of the Califomia discrimination-related provision, the provision is cities who sent letters and made calls to their nullified by other language in the bill that would allow members urging them to amend or oppose the new providers to self-select their service areas. As legislation. These efforts ultimately helped to con- such, a new broadband video service provider- vince the maioritv of the delegation to vote against through a national franchise - could pick and choose the measure. which neighborhoods they wish to serve while bypassing all others completely. The League and CSAC also distributed a letter to the delegation urging opposition to the measure on The League has worked closely with the National the aftemoon of the Floor vote. A copy of that letter is League of Cities (NlC), Califomia State Association available on the League website at www.cacities.oral of Counties (CSAC) and the Califomia Congres- telecom. A final tally of the California Congressional sional delegation to amend the bill to address Califor- delegation's vote on the bill (28 of our 52 Members nia cities' concems with the public rights-of-way voted "NO" - over half of California's Congressional enforcement and build-out provisions of the bill since delegation) can be viewed at "How Did Your Repre- House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair- sentative Vote on H.R. 52527" man Joe Barton (R-Texas) introduced the legislation in March. What's Next? Over the last several weeks, Califomia cities The focus of the federal debate on telecommuni- have made significant inroads with the delegation. cations law reform now moves to the Senate, where The League has worked closely with Congress- the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation women Hilda Solis and Diane Watson to construct Committee is scheduled to hold a June 13 hearing an amendment on build-out, and with Congressman on a revised version of Chairman Ted Stevens (R- Gary Miller and Congresswoman Susan Davis to Alaska) draft legislation-the Communications, develop a bipartisan amendment that would address Consumer's Choice, and Broadband Deployment cities' concerns with the public rights-of-way enforce- Act of 2006 (S. 2686). ment issues created by the bill. The revised proposal has not yet been released, We owe a special thanks to Congresswomen but is expected to offer greater support for the Solis and Watson who came to the floor several concerns of Califomia cities than the original version times on Thursday night to speak out on these released by the chairman's office last month. important issues. Congresswoman Solis also proposed to send the bill back to the Energy and At the May 18 opening hearing on the draft bill, Commerce Committee to be amended. This Chairman Stevens pledged to work with the proposal garnered a vote of 165-256 (30 of Committee's Ranking Member Daniel Inouye (0- Califomia's current 52 members voted to send the Hawaii) to address the issues raised by the National Continued on Page 10 Visit the league's Official Website--www.cacities.org PRIORITY FOCUS - PAGE 9 June 2, 2006 - Issue #22