Union, Industry Push For Congressional Broadband Action

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) has ramped up its lobbying efforts on the Hill, calling on House and Senate leaders to support legislation aimed at developing a national broadband policy. The union -- which represents 700,000 workers in the communications, media and other sectors -- has been joined by a broad-based alliance of telecommunications and cable carriers, trade associations, health-care, education, farm, and public interest groups to urging Congress to act on two pending bills -- S. 1492, the Broadband Data Improvement Act and H.R. 3919, the Broadband Census of America Act -- to get the ball rolling. Besides CWA, some 30 organizations and companies (including AT&;T, Charter Communications, Comcast, Connected Nation, Cox Communications, Embarq, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies, Qwest, Time Warner Cable, the U.S. Telecom Association and Verizon) signed a joint letter to Sens. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas), copied to other key congressional and committee leaders, outlining their reasons for wanting the two bills to move through the system quickly.