Lauren Frayer

Twelve media reform groups on Wednesday called on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to increase transparency of its decision-making and open its meetings to more public participation. In a letter to CPB President Patricia Harrison, the groups proposed a series of measures to encourage greater openness and accountability at the organization, which is the largest single source of funding for public TV and radio programming. The letter was signed by Common Cause, Free Press, the Center for Digital Democracy, the Benton Foundation, the Center for Creative Voices in Media, Chicago Media Action, Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting, Hawaii Consumers, Industry Ears, Media Alliance, Reclaim the Media and the Writers Guild of America East. That letter followed unsuccessful attempts by the reform groups to meet with Harrison and individual members of the board before the CPB's September 27 meeting. The groups first raised concerns over the internal workings of CPB after Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson secretly hired a political operative to scrutinize programming on PBS and NPR for signs of "liberal bias." An investigation by Inspector General Kenneth Konz into Tomlinson's actions -- including the hiring of Harrison, former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee is due to be completed next month. In a letter sent in late July, the reform groups called on CPB Board members and Harrison to consider a series of resolutions that would make the CPB more transparent and accountable to the American public. Harrison responded in a letter that these concerns already were "addressed by current practice and policy." However, neither the Public Broadcasting Act, the CPB Web site, nor CPB bylaws include language addressing the groups' concerns.

Rep. Slaughter (D-NY) introduced a bill Tuesday that would repeal a law confining low-power FM (LPFM) stations to rural communities and allow communities nationwide to build the 100-w stations.

I've been writing this all year, but I really mean it this time -- Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said that he plans to circulate draft legislation among senators this week to expedite the transition to digital television. "We're moving forward," Sen Stevens said, adding that "a couple of items" in the draft still must be resolved. He said he plans to meet individually with some senators over the next couple of days to try to settle those issues, and possibly discuss some broader telecommunications issues.

According to a Hill source, House Commerce Committee staffers and members have gotten the word that a preliminary draft of legislation updating and re-crafting the 1996 Telecommunication Act will be handed out Thursday. Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the Telecommunications Subcommittee, has called an 11 p.m. meeting to distribute the 70-page discussion draft, which is essentially a conversation-starter that will be subject to changes following negotiations and meetings among members. The bill will try to come up with regs and rules of the road for broadband video, voice, and Internet, essentially filling in areas where technology has outstripped the 1996 rewrite of the 1934 Act.

After more than two weeks of sporadic service because of Hurricane Katrina, telephone lines in southeastern Louisiana are slowly returning to normal as phone companies not only repair storm-damaged networks but adjust their systems to contend with population shifts. Meanwhile, the Louisiana Public Service Commission on Wednesday asked wireless phone companies in the state to give customers free service for September and October because wireless phones have become the only means of communication for many evacuees. Whether they will remains an open question. Despite the overall improvement in phone service, about 150,000 BellSouth Corp. phone lines remained dead Wednesday, mostly in the parishes of Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines and St. Bernard, said Merlin Villar, a spokesman for the region's biggest local phone service provider. Much of those parishes remain evacuated. BellSouth workers have repaired more than 100 breaks in the company's buried fiber-optic cable network that serves as the backbone of the region's local phone system. AT&T technicians had installed a new fiber-optic line between the Mississippi state line and Bay St. Louis, Miss., to bypass a pair of flooded computer switches in eastern New Orleans that are part of the long-distance company's high-capacity network in the region. Wireless phone companies also have repaired antennas, also known as cell sites, in areas that weren't flooded. Even with the progress, dialing into the region from outside Louisiana remained a problem for many, particularly during peak calling hours. To prevent the high calling volumes from jamming networks, some long-distance companies were limiting incoming calls so outgoing calls from storm victims and relief workers could be completed.

The Senate rejected language that would have earmarked $5 billion in government grants to strengthen communications among emergency responders. The measure, which Michigan Democrat Sen. Debbie Stabenow tried to add to a fiscal 2006 funding bill, was rebuffed by a vote of 58-40. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) insisted that the amendment was unrelated to the hurricane. "The breakdown in communications in the Katrina event was not an interoperability event," he said, insisting that damage to the telecommunications infrastructure along the Gulf Coast and a lack of electricity to recharge portable phones caused most of the problems. Sen John McCain also opposed the bill. said funding must be increased to bolster communications systems for emergency responders. "The better approach is for the nation to get serious about public-safety communications by developing and funding an interoperable communications system for all local, state and federal first responders." Sen McCain said the Homeland Security Department already has spent more than $280 million to purchase interoperable equipment. Gregg, however, cited a much higher figure of $2 billion. Sen McCain also noted that the Senate has passed a homeland security appropriations bill for fiscal 2006 that would provide an additional $2.6 million for interoperable communications.

Hurricane Katrina provided the first major test of the government's emergency preparedness following Sept. 11, 2001 - and it failed. That's the consensus from the White House to Capitol Hill; despite a huge investment of billions of dollars for communications efforts, the failure of communications systems was a deadly problem. On Capitol Hill this week, a group of lawmakers said they want to begin by looking at the communication problems that left Federal Emergency Management Agency officials in Baton Rouge and Washington unaware of the chaos and squalor facing tens of thousands of people at the New Orleans Superdome and Convention Center.
* Also see "Reality scuttles a great plan" at same URL: "The New Orleans emergency preparedness plan offers a precise communications strategy, so all city residents will know exactly where to go in times of crisis."

Technology and telecommunications industry officials eager for a fixed date for the transition to digital television voiced optimism that Congress would act soon, despite uncertainty related to the recovery from Hurricane Katrina. The digital TV language was set to be part of a so-called reconciliation bill, designed to "reconcile" tax and spending initiatives with the congressional budget resolution adopted earlier this year. Despite some fears early last week that Katrina might sidetrack the budget reconciliation process entirely, technology industry officials said that their preferred route remains the plan by House Energy and Commerce Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, to include DTV language in a reconciliation bill now delayed until mid-October. Referring to the prospects for the DTV transition measure, an aide to one Republican senator said: "I have no doubt that it will happen. If it was neglected [by Senate leaders], many members would be disappointed because many members see the DTV legislation as Katrina legislation."

Senate leadership set Oct. 26 as the new deadline for budget reconciliation, which puts DTV legislation back on track for consideration while giving lawmakers time to deal with funding for Hurricane Katrina. Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Stevens told reporters Tues. he plans to meet with members the next day or 2 to brief them on DTV matters. In the House, Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton is still working on his bill. Sources said progress is being made on controversial provisions. The anticipated $10 billion proceeds from auctioning analog spectrum is an important revenue consideration for the reconciliation package. Under budget resolution instructions, the Senate Commerce Committee must raise $4.8 billion and the House Commerce Committee must cut -- or raise -- $14.7 billion, much of which is expected to come from cuts in Medicaid program growth (CD July 8 p1). The House and Senate reconciliation bills will include DTV provisions that will be submitted separately to the Senate Budget Committee and worked out in conference. The House has taken the lead on DTV and is making progress on divisive provisions. One sticking point that may be getting resolved is the amount of the subsidy to allocate for converter boxes to allow consumers with analog TVs to receive digital signals. Apparently, Republicans and Democrats are nearing a compromise on the subsidy: $800 million total, $40 vouchers for consumers who buy convertors boxes.
(Not available online)

-- "The Nation's Food Bank Network" and a recipient of a 1999 award from NTIA's Technology Opportunities Program -- has obtained and distributed more than 16 million pounds of food, water and essential grocery supplies to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. By the beginning of this week, the Network had secured and dispatched 487 trucks, carrying 16.5 million pounds of supplies (about 12.9 million meals) to the affected areas. The award Second Harvest received from TOP in 1999 helped create a model demonstrating that connectivity and data sharing can result in a better supply chain for relief products. The Network secures supplies and then moves them to local food banks that pack 25 pound relief boxes to go to the more than 200 emergency shelters in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and the surrounding states where hundreds of thousands of evacuees are moving. Second Harvest is the nation's largest charitable hunger-relief organization with a Network of more than 200 regional member food banks and food - rescue programs serving all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The Network secures and distributes nearly two billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually. The Network supports approximately 50,000 local charitable agencies operating more than 94,000 programs including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, after-school programs, and Kids Cafes. Last year, the Network provided food assistance to more than 23 million low-income hungry people in the United States, including more than nine million children and nearly three million seniors.