WASHINGTON-The U.S. House of Representatives last week approved a new District of Columbia appropriations conference report, which includes a provision to foster antenna siting in Rock Creek Park and on other federal lands in the nation’s capital.
At RCR press time, the Senate was expected to approve the bill and send it to the White House, but President Clinton likely will veto the D.C. spending measure for the second time.
The Rock Creek siting provision is being pushed by Bell Atlantic Mobile, which has been fighting for five years to erect two cellular towers in the park, and by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).
The Rock Creek issue has helped bring the larger nationwide problem of siting moratoria to the attention of lawmakers. But the GOP-led Congress has stayed away from pre-empting local zoning authority because doing so would conflict with Republican’s new federalism philosophy of devolving power to the states.
