HR 4969 update from Bob Vallio, ARRL Pacific Division Director:
As we all have discovered, the political process is complex and slow
and the wheels of government are even slower. That being said, our
efforts with HR 4969 have had measures of success; we had hoped to
obtain 30 cosponsors for the Bill and actually ended up with more than
70 cosponsors. ARRL’s advocacy is once again being recognized and
finding support in the halls of Congress.
It took us a while to line up an original minority cosponsor so that a
truly bipartisan bill could be introduced. Even so, we were able to
amass an exceptional and surprising level of support for the Bill.
This will give us a big head start in the 114th Congress in January,
and we have in mind reassembling many of the cosponsors that we had for
H.R. 4969. That will give us the opportunity to obtain a much larger
number of cosponsors for the new Bill.
We were well aware that there was likely not enough time to pass H.R.
4969 in the 113th Congress, but it was urgent to begin the process and
amass the largest showing of support for the good work of Amateur Radio
operators that we could, so as to build momentum for the continuation of
the process in the 114th Congress. So far, we are way ahead of where we
had hoped to be at this time.
Many thanks to all of you who wrote, called, and visited your
Congressional Representatives as we began our travel in the maze of
representative government; your efforts have not gone unnoticed, and
have built a strong foundation for the next phase.
Thank you and 73,
Bob Vallio, W6RGG
Director, Pacific Division
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ARRL Pacific Division
Director: Robert B Vallio, W6RGG
w6rgg@arrl.org
