WASHINGTON-House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.), compromising with Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) on privacy, liability and cancer-research funding, won bipartisan approval last week on legislation to improve E911 wireless capability and foster antenna siting on federal land.
The bill, which the House Commerce Committee may take up before Congress breaks for its August recess, would pay for E911 upgrades through matching state grants with fees paid by wireless carriers to site antennas on U.S. property.
Changes to the bill in Tauzin’s amendment would ban states from using federal funds for carrier cost recovery, allowing money to flow strictly to public-safety dispatchers to defray costs of handling E911 calls.
Wireless carriers would have limited liability from E911 lawsuits such as that enjoyed by wireline carriers today, though states would have the option of enacting a different 911 wireless liability standard within two years after the Tauzin bill becomes effective.
Markey, before compromising, argued wireless carriers should not have the same level of liability protection as wireline carriers because of holes in wireless services.
States would be prohibited from imposing surcharges or taxes on carriers and subscribers to further E911 deployment, an enhanced version of emergency wireless calling that does not entirely exist today.
Currently, the location of the more than 83,000 people making 911 calls from mobile phones cannot be ascertained by emergency dispatch operators, though technology is being developed to make that possible.
Some consumer advocates say lack of E911 position location may give consumers a false sense of security. The Federal Communications Commission requires E911 wireless position location services to be available by 2001.
The Tauzin measure also requires the FCC to allow states to transition to a new 911 universal emergency telephone number and provides seed money for federal research on automatic crash notification technology.
It was expected that Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) would introduce a companion measure by now, but he has not done so. Other senior GOP lawmakers are said to be willing to sponsor an E911 bill if McCain does not come through.
Rock Creek debate
“This bill is about leasing federal properties to make sure that wireless services are extended in areas where coverage is not now available so that 911 becomes a reality in every part of the country, including Rock Creek Park,” said Tauzin.
The National Park Service, after promising in March to rule within 60 days on two Bell Atlantic Mobile antenna-siting applications in Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Park, now says it will take at least five months more before it can decide the matter because of an environmental assessment study that will cost the carrier more than $25,000.
The wireless industry accuses NPS of frustrating antenna siting, despite President Clinton’s 1995 executive order that federal agencies reasonably accommodate carriers’ requests to erect towers on federal land. The order was codified in the 1996 telecom act.
NPS says it must balance antenna siting with competing laws governing environmental, historical and aesthetic obligations of federal land management.
Tauzin said his bill will end such delays. The initiative is supported by health-care and public-safety professionals organized and partially funded by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association and National Strategies, a lobbyist for CTIA.
“ComCare members truly believe that H.R. 3844 will help save lives and we are grateful to the members of the subcommittee for passing it unanimously. We are confident they will continue to move it quickly and decisively toward enactment,” said Sue Hoyt, chairwoman of the ComCare Alliance and a registered emergency nurse.
Cancer research
The bill authorizes $10 million over five years for Food and Drug Administration animal bioeffects research on possible health risks from pocket telephones.
Early in the debate, Tauzin agreed to work with Markey-the ranking minority member of the House telecom panel-to strengthen privacy protection of automatic vehicle crash notification systems but refused to give into the Massachusetts Democrat’s demand that a small portion of federal land antenna-siting fees be reserved for federal cancer research.
Tauzin and Markey struck a deal on cancer-research funding the night before last Wednesday’s markup, according to an industry lobbyist.
The compromise appeared to take some Republicans, like Reps. Chris Cox (R-Calif.) and Steve Largent (R-Okla.), off guard. Neither lawmaker said he saw the need to include cancer-research funding in the E911 bill.
Nevertheless, Cox, warning the modest five-year research funding level could backfire and drag out the controversy, recommended RF studies get financial backing elsewhere so the issue can be put to rest.
Largent said the $10 million would be better spent examining mobile phone-related automobile accidents.
Tauzin reiterated his belief that wireless phones do not cause brain cancer, but conceded that conflicting RF research here and abroad keeps the issue alive. He added that cellular industry-funded research, which has produced no biological studies after five years and $25 million, is likely to be viewed as suspect because it is underwritten by wireless carriers and manufacturers.
Markey, for his part, pointed to new research from the United Kingdom suggesting mobile phone RF emissions may affect brain tissue in a way that disrupts memory and learning.
Australian Health Minister Michael Wooldridge this month announced federal funding for three research projects to investigate whether mobile phones cause brain tumors, whether phones affect concentration and memory and whether there is a direct link between mobile phone radiation and DNA damage.
Will the bill pass?
Whether Markey or Tauzin will achieve their objectives through the bill is uncertain. The Congressional Budget Office and the General Services Administration said the bill will generate only a fraction of the $1.5 billion during the next five years as predicted by industry.
While limited to antenna siting on federal land, the legislation has given Tauzin the bully pulpit to criticize the hundreds of antenna-siting moratoria in communities across the country that hinder the buildout of personal communications services and expansion of cellular telephone networks.