From Delta Division Letter:
Greetings Delta Division Members,
It gives me great pleasure to announce that HR-555 (we just missed getting 599, but I’ll take the raspy tone and S-5 strength for a good QSO) the 2017 Amateur Radio Parity Act was passed with much praise of radio amateurs and with no dissent yesterday evening. Per the ARRL web news:
Just 10 days after being introduced, the 2017 Amateur Radio Parity Act legislation, H.R. 555, passed the U.S. House of Representatives this week on unanimous consent under a suspension of House rules. The bill’s language is identical to that of the 2015 measure, H.R. 1301, which won House approval late last summer after attracting 126 co-sponsors, but failed to clear the U.S. Senate last fall as the 114th Congress wound down. The new bill, again sponsored by Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), was introduced on January 13 with initial co-sponsorship by Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) and Rep. Greg Walden, W7EQI (R-OR), who chairs the influential House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
H.R. 555 calls on the FCC to establish rules prohibiting the application of deed restrictions that preclude Amateur Radio communications on their face or as applied. Deed restrictions would have to impose the minimum practicable restriction on Amateur Radio communications to accomplish the lawful purposes of homeowners association seeking to enforce the restriction
“The grassroots effort of Amateur Radio operators across this nation in support of the Amateur Radio Parity Act has been remarkable, nothing like we have ever seen before,” ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR, said. “To all hams, keep going! Now is the time to charge forward with that same momentum to the Senate. We can do it!” The bill arrives in the U.S. Senate with ample time in which to garner its approval through an education campaign.
Last year we almost passed this act but for one hold out in the US Senate who has now changed his position. Our grass roots effort on lobbying and writing the Senate now begins. We will be contacting you the members with our plans on getting this passed and to President Trumps desk. I should state that this could not have been done without the herculean effort that you, the members, put forth over the past two years. It has been a long and sometimes rough road but now we may be ending a happy end to this journey. Let’s make this last full measure a successful victory for radio amateurs in the USA.
Thank you!
73 ES QRX
DE K5UZ
DE WB4RHQ
Submitted by KD4WX
White County Amateur Radio Club 