West Gulf Division Political Action Network

Report on the 80^th Texas Legislative Session

  It is said that if you can walk away from a session of the Texas legislature with what you brought to the table, you are a winner.  Well, at this session amateur radio was a winner and better yet, there were no losers.

  Many of us within the ARRL have argued strenuously for years that the ARRL should - if it was to protect amateur radio – form effective and organized member groups to monitor and represent the interests of amateur radio at the local, state and federal legislative level. As a result of those efforts the ARRL’s West Gulf Division Legislative Action Group was in place when the Texas Legislature roared into Austin.

Bad Bills Arisin’

  At the start of the 80^th Legislative Session, things looked bleak for amateur radio because four bills were filed; 3 House bills and 1 Senate bill, that would have prohibited or criminalized the use of either vehicular mounted or handheld mobile amateur radios. 

Houston, we have a problem!

   To meet the threat, Coy Day, West Gulf Director, tasked me to activate the West Gulf Political Action Group. I solicited volunteers and three came forward. They are Glen Reid, K5FX; Lee Cooper, W5LHC; and John Stratton, KE5ISX.  All are professional, motivated, politically savvy and live in the Austin area. They were exactly what the ARRL needed, “Boots on the ground”.  Once organized, I immediately integrated the newly formed Austin Group with the activities of Jim Robinson, K5PNV, STX SGL. 

  On the surface, three of the bills, Senate Bill 154 by Sen. Wentworth, House Bill 201 by Rep. Menendez and House Bill 3689 by Rep. Coleman, appeared to be directed at prohibiting the use of cellular telephones by motorists unless used with a “hands-free” device. A close reading of the bills revealed they were not so benign or so limited.

  The key language of the three bills was identical. Although it appeared the bills were only directed at cell phone and text messaging device users, the bills were worded to prohibit the use of a “wireless communication device” unless used with a “hands-free” device. The problem lies with the fact that a “Wireless communication device” was not defined by the bills or by existing federal or state law. As written, SB 154, HB 201 and HB 3689 would have actually prohibited or criminalized, not only the use of mobile amateur radio, but commercial mobile radios, vehicular GPS navigation devices, vehicular AM/FM radios, on-board automobile computer control systems and a host of other radio devices.

  House Bill 652 by Rep. Quintanilla was different. By clear language it criminalized the use of any mobile radio – whether installed or handheld. This bill was so over the top in what it prohibited – talking to a passenger, consuming food or a beverage, performing personal grooming (combing one’s hair and scratching were finally becoming crimes), listening to an installed AM/FM radio or CD player, listening to an iPod (installed or not) – that the Texas Legislative Action Group believed it would never make it out of the House Transportation Committee for a floor vote. Consequently, HB 652 was watched, but all efforts were concentrated on SB 154, HB 201 and HB 3689.

  Due to Sen. Wentworth’s seniority and position on the powerful Senate Transportation & Homeland Security Committee, it was believed SB 154 would be the lead bill and initial efforts were focused on Sen. Wentworth.

  In early February, STX SGL Jim Robinson (K5PNV) contacted Sen. Wentworth’s office. Based on representations made by Sen. Wentworth, Jim Robinson reported to Ray Taylor (N5NAV), STX SM, and me that he had taken care of the issue as Sen. Wentworth had agreed to exempt amateur radio from application of SB 154.

He Was Against Us - Before He Was For Us - Before He Was Against Us

  Well, that understanding did not last long. Contacts in the following weeks with Sen. Wentworth’s office by multiple hams attempting to explain the overly broad language of the bill prohibited the use of all vehicular amateur and commercial radios produced inconsistent responses from his office. I traveled to Austin mid-February and visited with Senator Wentworth’s Chief of Staff.  He confirmed to me that the Senator, contrary to any prior representations, refused to exempt amateur radio, saying Sen. Wentworth believed everyone ought to drive with two hands on the wheel. Sen. Wentworth made it clear he intended SB 154 to prohibit the use of handheld or vehicular-mounted two-way radios.

  While others and I were initially attempting to work with Sen. Wentworth in late February and early March, John Robert Stratton (KE5ISX) began working with Rep. Menendez’s office on HB 201. In contrast to Sen. Wentworth, Rep. Menendez emphatically said it was not his intent to prohibit the use of mobile amateur radio. His office argued HB 201 did not adversely affect amateur radio because a vehicular mounted radio was not a “wireless communication device” - because it was wired into the vehicle. This erroneous belief arose partially from advice given to Menendez (and Wentworth we were to learn later) by the attorneys at Texas Legislative Council who actually drafted HB 201, HB 3689 and SB 154.

  After John Stratton provided a thorough explanation of how radio works and what “wireless” really meant, Menendez’s Chief of Staff recognized the bill had unintended consequences, but was reluctant to agree to any changes unless those changes were recommended by the Texas Legislative Council.

  In an attempt to reassure Menendez and ensure HB 201 would not hurt amateur radio, John Stratton redrafted HB 201 to clearly limit its application to the intended targets and exclude amateur radio both by definition and specific exemption. After receipt of the draft, Menendez was still unwilling to alter HB 201. However, at John’s request Menendez agreed to meet with him and other concerned hams on March 22.

  Since Wentworth was proving intractable, I mobilized groups of hams in San Antonio (Wentworth’s home and largest group of voters) and in Austin to meet with the Senator in an attempt to drive home the importance of protecting amateur radio’s ability to remain a key component of emergency communications at the local, state and federal level. I also alerted the Houston group during its Ham Fest to be prepared for a mass mail effort.

  In addition, John and other hams contacted other groups, including taxi drivers, GPS manufacturers and commercial radio users, persuading them to contact Menendez and Wentworth to complain of the harm caused by HB 201 and SB 154.

Good Bill Arisin’

  March 7, 2007 saw the filing of SB 11, the lead homeland security bill for this Session. Authored by Sen. Carona, Chairman of the powerful Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, the bill contained two key amateur radio friendly provisions: Article 2 and Article 5.

  Article 2 added §661.919 to the Government Code to extend the benefits of the Ready Texan Act, originally passed in 1999 by the 76^th Legislature, to all state employees. The Ready Texan Act permitted up to 350 state employees at one time who were certified American Red Cross volunteers, to be granted leave for up to 10 days each, to participate in a declared emergency without loss of salary or benefits. But, it was limited only to Red Cross volunteers.

  The new §661.919 grants to licensed amateur radio operators the same privileges and protections originally granted to only Red Cross volunteers. Now up to 350 amateur radio operators who are state employees may be granted leave for up to 10 days to participate in declared disasters without loss of salary or benefits.

  Much of the credit for the inclusion of §661.919 in SB 11, lies with Lee Cooper (W5LHC), STX Section Public Information Coordinator, who drafted and worked tirelessly with Sen. Carona’s office and the Committee staff to ensure inclusion and passage of this superbly beneficial provision in the bill.

    Article 5 amends Government Code §418.013(c) and adds §546.006 to the Transportation Code. These modifications permit a vehicle driven by an amateur radio operator who is a member of an emergency organization such as RACES, ARES or the Red Cross to be designated an official emergency vehicle during a declared disaster, as determined by the Texas Governor’s Division of Emergency Management.

Break In the Ranks

  By the middle of March, John Stratton was successful in persuading both Menendez and the Texas Legislative Council to agree to redraft HB 201 to eliminate its effect on amateur radio. Menendez’s office indicated that Wentworth had agreed to consider accepting the new draft.

  After consultation with the FCC, John drafted two proposed replacements for HB 201 and SB 154 and submitted them for consideration to Menendez, Wentworth and the Texas Legislative Council. The two replacements were worded to clearly exclude amateur radio from the targeted class and, as a precaution, also included a specific exemption for amateur radio from application of the bills.

Wentworth Reaffirms Refusal to Exempt Amateur Radio

  Glen Reid (K5FX), Lee Cooper, and John Stratton met with Sen. Wentworth’s Chief of Staff Joe Morris on March 15, 2007. Glen delivered an excellent PowerPoint presentation that forcefully explained amateur radio’s critical importance to local, state and federal emergency communications. At the conclusion of the meeting, Mr. Morris assured Glen, Lee and John that the Senator would consider exempting amateur radio from SB 154.

  However, within a week Mr. Morris confirmed Sen. Wentworth had considered our request, but still declined to grant an exemption for amateur radio, again stating it was Sen. Wentworth’s intent that SB 154 cover all radio operations and it was the Senator’s belief that everyone should drive with two hands on the steering wheel.

Menendez Reaffirms Intent To not Include Amateur Radio

  Glen, Lee, John and Paul Gilbert (KE5ZW) met with Menendez’s Chief of Staff Jennifer Brader on March 22, 2007. Ms. Brader was receptive to their presentation and again confirmed Menendez had never intended to include mobile amateur radio operation in HB 201’s prohibited operations. She also admitted Menendez had heard from other radio operators complaining that HB 201, as worded, would also prohibit their mobile operations.

However, Ms. Brader was unwilling to commit to including a specific exemption for amateur radio, until the redrafted HB 201 was received from the Texas Legislative Council, as she believed the redraft would eliminate our concerns.

The Texas Legislative Council Revision Arrives – Jason Still Lives

  We received the Texas Legislative Council’s redraft of HB 201 and SB 154 at the end of March. It was not much of an improvement. Although similar in language to the draft we had submitted to the TLC, it did not track the precise language recommended by the FCC to ensure that amateur radio and other mobile radio operators would be excluded from the bill. No one was willing to either clean up the loose language or modify the TLC bill to include an exemption for amateur radio.

The Hearing Race Is On

     Beginning in early April, the public committee hearings on the bills we were working, SB11, HB201 and SB154 began.

SB 11

 The Senate Transportation & Homeland Security Committee held its first public hearing on SB 11 on April 4, 2007. Tom Blackwell (N5GAR), NTX SM & NTX SGL, Glen Reid and Lee Cooper testified. Tom Blackwell testified to request resolution of a conflict in the Education Code that caused problems for amateur radio operators in some school districts. Glen and Lee testified in support of Articles 2 and 5.  

Jim Robinson (K5PNV), STX SGL, and Paul Gilbert (KE5ZW) also attended the hearing, registering in favor of SB 11.

At the conclusion of the hearing on SB 11, Senator Carona, Chairman of the Committee, thanked all the hams for their presence and announced to the overflowing crowd that ham radio operators were the unsung heroes of emergency communications.

     HB 201

The House Transportation Committee hearing on HB 201 on April 17, 2007, also ended favorably. Rep. Menendez requested that the Committee substitute the Texas Legislative Council draft for the original HB 201. The Committee initially agreed to accept the substitute. John Stratton testified the ARRL was not opposed to the bill's intent, but was concerned the language of both the original bill and TLC substitute had unintended consequences and advised the Committee that ARRL’s concerns would be eliminated if a specific exemption for amateur radio was included in the bill, just as had been done by other states that had passed similar legislation.

  Chairman Krusee and Vice Chairman Phillips both asked Menendez to work with ARRL on crafting an exemption. Following John’s testimony and the comments by the Chairman and Vice Chairman, Rep. Menendez told the Committee that he would work with us to include a specific exemption for mobile amateur radio operations. The Committee then withdrew the substituted bill, leaving the original bill pending in Committee.

  In a hallway meeting immediately following the Committee hearing, Rep. Menendez confirmed he would include a specific exemption for amateur radio in the bill. Rep. Menendez was given a written copy of two exemptions we had drafted and told either would be acceptable to ARRL.

SB 154

The result of SB 154’s hearing on April 25, 2007 before Sen. Carona’s Transportation & Homeland Security Committee was extremely favorable. Because SB 154 was considered the lead “cell phone” bill, we requested and had a very good turnout of hams to oppose the bill.

  Before the hearing, John Stratton met Sen. Wentworth’s Chief of Staff, Joe Morris, and again stated the ARRL would not oppose either the original bill or the TLC substitute, if Sen. Wentworth would agree to include a specific exemption approved by ARRL for amateur radio operators. Mr. Morris responded that the Senator still refused to include the requested amateur radio exemption.

  As expected, Sen. Wentworth requested the Committee accept the TLC redraft as a substitute for the original bill and the Committee agreed.

  Glen Reid, Michael G. Hardwick (N5VCX), President of the Brazos Valley Radio Club and the Communications Coordinator for the Annual MS-150 Race, and John Stratton testified against SB 154. Again, our position was that we did not oppose the intent of the bill, but we were concerned the language of both the original bill and TLC substitute had unintended consequences, advising the Committee that ARRL’s concerns would be eliminated if a specific exemption for amateur radio was included in the bill. As we had done in the House hearing, we offered the Committee two written exemptions, requesting that one of them be added to SB 154.

  At the conclusion of our testimony, Sen. Carona responded favorably, stating he was certain many on the Committee agreed SB 154 was in need of changes. Quite a few of the Senators nodded in agreement. The Committee left SB 154 pending in Committee.

  Hams that attended and registered against SB 154 included Boyce W. Jarrett (K5FOG), Karla J. Jurrens (N5KUR), William G. Jurrens (WD0ACD) and Eric L. Rabinowitz (AE5BE). Many others called the Committee members to express their opposition.

It Gets Better

     On the afternoon of April 25, 2007, Rep. Menendez’s Chief of Staff advised John Stratton that HB 201 had too much opposition in the House Committee and would not be reported out – it was dead for the 80^th Legislative Session.

  Just days before, the Chief of Staff for Rep. Quintanilla had confirmed to John that our original belief that HB 652 stood no chance of passage was correct – stating HB 652 had overwhelming opposition from the House Transportation Committee members.  It was dead for the Session.

   The Senate Transportation & Homeland Security Committee reported out SB 154 favorably on May 2 – with an exemption for amateur radio in the exact language we had requested. In order to persuade the Committee to approve SB 154, Sen. Wentworth had been forced to agree to our exemption.

  May 9 marked the end of ARRL’s exposure to the cell phone bills for this Session. Sen. Wentworth’s Chief of Staff advised us the Senator was pulling SB 154 from consideration by the Senate, because he did not have the votes to bring it to a floor vote. The deadline for all House bills to be reported out by a committee had also expired, leaving HB 201, HB 3689 and HB 652 dead for this Session.

SB 11 Survives The Gauntlet & ARRL Survives The Amendment

SB 11’s journey to passage was hotly contested. The Senate Committee reported SB 11 out on April 12 and the whole Senate approved it on April 18. The House Defense Affairs & State-Federal Relations Committee considered SB 11 May 7, but substituted its version for the Senate’s, sending the substitute to the House for approval. The House passed the substituted version of SB 11 on May 23, but only after adding 20 amendments.

  One of those 20 amendments was potentially dangerous to hams. A bill authored by CLEAT (Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas), that had failed to get House approval was attached to SB 11. The bill, poorly drafted, was an attempt to make the theft and use of police, fire or EMS radios a crime – even though such conduct is covered by existing criminal statutes. The danger arose because a provision made it a crime for anyone to use any frequency that could be used for communications in an emergency – in other words, potentially all frequencies assigned by the FCC to amateur radio.

  Our attempts to persuade the authors of the amendment to modify the dangerous language were initially rebuffed. We advised the Senate Committee that the amendment was fatally flawed, we were unsuccessful in obtaining any modifications and that ARRL was absolutely opposed to the amendment. We drafted and submitted a replacement for the amendment in an effort to eliminate the danger.

  Our opposition forced CLEAT to consider accepting our redraft of their amendment. However, we deemed their attempts to modify our draft unacceptable and we notified the Committee we would not accept their changes and again opposed the inclusion of the amendment. The amendment was struck from SB 11.

  The Senate refused to accept the House version of SB 11, forcing the bill to conference committee. The Senate accepted the conference committee’s version on May 27 – the day before the end of the Legislative Session.

  The fight between a rebel group and Speaker Tom Craddick over control of the House almost doomed SB 11. By its own rules, the deadline for the House to consider and pass all legislation was midnight, Sunday, May 27. Before midnight, the rebel group walked off the House floor, breaking the House quorum – no further business could be transacted. The House adjourned until 2:00 p.m. Monday, May 28 in the hope it could reassemble a quorum. It was able to do so; but, being past the May 27 midnight deadline, 2/3rds of the House had to vote to suspend its rules in order to consider any bill. If the House voted to suspend its rules and consider a bill, the bill then had to pass by a majority vote.

  The opposition of certain House members to some of the law enforcement and Homeland Security provisions of SB 11 was intense, making it uncertain as to whether enough votes could be mustered to bring SB 11 to a vote. There never was any opposition to the ham friendly Articles 2 & 5, but the passage of these provisions hung on the fate of the entire bill.

  After dramatic behind the scenes maneuvering, SB 11 was finally brought to a vote in the evening, just hours before the session was to end. SB 11’s opponents tried to block consideration by asserting a total of three points of order, that over a period of hours, were finally rejected by the Speaker. SB 11 passed by a vote of 139 ayes, 1 nay, with 3 members present, but not voting.

Houston, we have a bill!

Session Lessons

     The ARRL’s West Gulf Division Political Action Group was successful on its first outing: it was effective in preventing four cellular telephone bills from being passed with language that would have prohibited all mobile operations; it was successful in blocking an amendment that would have insanely, but nonetheless, potentially criminalized the use of any frequency assigned by the FCC to amateur radio.

  And through dedicated effort, it obtained the passage of two statutes that increase the rights and privileges available to Texas amateur radio operators.

  We were also successful in establishing ARRL as a credible representative of amateur radio and an organization that should be consulted and taken seriously before the passage of legislation affecting radio communication and emergency operations.

  This Session proved the value of having a coordinated team of knowledgeable hams ready to monitor and engage the Legislature when it is in session. Absent the groundwork laid before this session, amateur radio could have been seriously harmed by the legislation that we opposed.

  The “cell phone” bills will be back in the next session. Rep. Menendez has advised us he intends to again introduce such a bill. It is probable Sen. Wentworth will also. CLEAT is, at present, still insistent on having some form of legislation specifically prohibiting the use of law enforcement, fire and EMS radios and frequencies.

  Next Session we will have to be vigilant not only for these known threats, but threats of which we have no current knowledge, but that are certain to arise from the dark caves of carelessly drafted legislation and the twisted minds of those who are hostile to amateur radio or mobile communications.

  We want to thank Rep. Jose Menendez for his support of amateur radio and his agreement to exclude us from the impact of his legislation.

  Even though Sen. Wentworth and we disagreed over the merits of prohibiting mobile radio operation, the Senator was gracious after we successfully added our exemption to his bill. Although we disagreed on that issue, Sen. Wentworth was very supportive of the amateur radio provisions in SB 11 – both in Committee and on the floor. We thank Senator Wentworth for that support.

  We would be remiss not to extend our deepest appreciation to Sen. John Carona for ensuring Article 2 and Article 5 were inserted into SB 11, stayed in SB 11 and for protecting us from amendments to SB 11 that would have damaged amateur radio. We look forward to working with Sen. Carona again and extend our congratulations to Sen. Carona for his election as President Pro Tempe of the Senate – a well-deserved honor.

  In addition to these and other Legislators, we established good working relationships with a number of interest groups – relationships that will benefit amateur radio in future sessions.

  Many hams, too numerous to name here, were generous with their time and support when the call for help went out – without them we would not have been as effective. On behalf of the West Gulf Division Political Action Group, I want to thank everyone in the Division who lent a hand.

  I, especially, want to recognize for their long hours and dogged determination the West Gulf Division’s Legislative Action Assistants who composed the Austin Group: John Robert Stratton, Lee Cooper and Glen Reid. Without their leadership and expertise we would not have faired so well. The Division also cannot overlook the support, insight and wisdom of the Dean of ARRL legislative representatives, Jim Robinson, STX SGL and the STX SM Ray Taylor.

  The West Gulf Division Political Action Group can be proud of its accomplishments – we did well.