WASHINGTON-House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.), straddled by cellular industry representatives and health-care activists, last week introduced E911-federal land antenna-siting legislation and signaled he would negotiate with Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) on privacy concerns but probably not on cancer-research funding.
“Today we talk about saving lives,” said Tauzin at last Tuesday’s news briefing. At the same time, Tauzin said he did not want to erect towers on top of the Lincoln Memorial.
Besides making 911 uniform across the country, the Tauzin bill would help fund upgrades to E911 emergency response centers and fund the development of automatic crash-notification technology with revenue from fees paid by wireless carriers to site antennas on federal property.
In addition, the bill would extend E911 liability limits enjoyed today by wireline carriers to wireless carriers.
A companion bill has been drafted by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), but it is not likely to be introduced until after Memorial Day.
That and other obstacles could hurt the bill’s chances of being passed this year, given the abridged legislative session due to this fall’s midterm elections.
Even if the bill passes, there could be a backlash if cellular-industry projections for antenna-siting-fee revenues turn out to be as far off as the U.S. government says.
Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association President Thomas Wheeler testified before Tauzin’s subcommittee in March that $1.5 billion could be raised from fees during the next five years.
At the same hearing, David Bibb, deputy associate administrator of the General Services Administration, estimated only $1.5 million a year could be generated from federal land antenna-siting fees. GSA is the government’s leasing agent.
Tauzin has lined up several sponsors for the bill, but he is meeting resistance from Markey, the ranking Democrat on the telecom panel, who wants a portion of siting fees earmarked to research whether pocket phones can be linked to cancer. The Food and Drug Administration would oversee that project.
Markey also wants privacy safeguards in connection with automatic crash-notification systems that instantly transmit key information on drivers to emergency dispatch centers after automobile accidents.
“We’ll have discussions with them on an ongoing basis about it,” said Colin Crowell, a Markey aide.
“Perhaps Mr. Markey can have it (the cancer-research issue) addressed in another forum,” said Tim Ayers, a CTIA spokesman.
Crowell said his office received a number of press calls after Tauzin played down the FDA’s interest in the controversial pocket phone-cancer issue and remarked during the press briefing that the cellular industry had spent $25 million on research and found nothing wrong.
Crowell said FDA letters to Markey indicate the agency has far more interest in radio-frequency radiation-related health issues than Tauzin represented to reporters.
The cellular-industry-funded cancer research has not produced any biological test results.
