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This was the vote last summer on S2686 (later named HR5252) in the 109th Congressional Session: 15-7 with all 12 Republicans and 3 Democrats voting for the bill. The new Democratic majority will hopefully alter the equation in this session.

Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for 2006 is You. Time sees the tipping point of self-produced, online, “citizen” media as “a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before.” The magazine’s homage extols the “cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace.”

This is how members of the new 110th Congressional House Commerce Telecommunications Subcommittee voted on COPE HR5252 last year. Nine of the current 18 Democrats voted for COPE, let’s hope they have become better informed on the issues of PEG TV, Red-lining and Net Neutrality since then.

See their ‘06 donations at: COPE Scorecard

“I call them the black ninjas. They work by night and are very, very good.”
- past FCC Chairman Bill Kennard explaining telco lobbyists

In a holiday present to Wall Street, the FCC approved the 85 billion dollar AT&T/BellSouth merger. The combined company will have an estimated $100 billion dollars in annual revenue, employ 300,000 people, and control 22 states, including local phone service to 70 million and DSL service for 11 million.

Republican Majority Attack Cities and Loot Community Television Centers Across the Country

On Wednesday Dec. 20th, The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted in favor of MB 05-311, adopting "Rules to Ensure Reasonable Franchising Process for New Video Market Entrants." The vote was split on partisan lines with three Republicans voting for and the two Democrats against the new rules. The ruling is expected to be challenged in the courts on numerous fronts since it imposes FCC authority over the existing legislative rights of local governments.

At present we do not support Senate Bill S.2686 (now renamed HR.5252). The Bill passed on June 28th in the Commerce Committee in a 15-7 vote. It excludes much needed protections against red-lining (there are no enforceable build-out provisions) and also fails to protect net neutrality. These are two key issues we can't compromise on.

The Senate Commerce Committee passed S.2686 in a 15 to 7 vote. Stevens will now need to submit the Bill to a full Senate vote.

The Senate Commerce Committee is in hearings for S.2686, the Communications, Consumers' Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006. The mark-up is now scheduled for June 22nd. This is where the wrongs of COPE can be righted. Once passed out of committee, the full Senate will vote on the Bill, it is then resolved with the House Bill in Conference Committee. See our S.2686 page for more info.

Last update: Monday, June 12
HR 5252-COPE passes by a margin of 321-101
Nearly all Republicans and a majority of the Democrats voted for the Resolution and the interests of their corporate patrons, the telephone companies. The net neutrality amendment was defeated and was excluded from this bill. The final resolution with the attached amendments is not just bad - it's ridiculously bad. We can only hope the Senate will act with greater integrity, truthfulness and foresight.

A new report issued by the Alliance for Community Media shows clearly how much support would be lost to Public, Educational and Governmental Access communities (PEG) under bills now being considered by Congress.