Community Access Preservation Act Needs Co-Sponsors & a Senate Companion Bill

On October 8 Wisconsin Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin filed the Community Access Preservation Act, which, if enacted, would preserve and protect PEG access channels in four ways.

This bill:

1. Allows PEG access fees to be used for any PEG-related purposes;
2. Ends operators' discriminatory treatment of PEG channels;
3. Directs the FCC to study and report on the effects recent states' video franchising legislation has had on PEG access; and
4. Defines all video services delivered to the home over wire as "cable" for the purposes of the act, regardless of the transmission protocol used.

The Alliance for Community Media wholeheartedly endorses this bill, and is launching a campaign to gather co-sponsors, get a version filed in the Senate, get the bill passed by Congress, and signed by the President - before the summer recess.

Please use this online action tool to contact your Representative - ask him or her to support HR 3745 - the Community Access Preservation Act.  Then email your Senators, and ask them to file a companion bill.  Please personalize these letters as best you can - speak to the value PEG access channels play in your own community, and the loss your community would suffer without them.

When your Representative or Senators take action on this matter, we will let you know so you can send them a "thank you" note or, perhaps, a second request.

Support the Community Access Preservation Act Now!

Thanks so much for lending your voice on your community's behalf!

In Alliance,

Helen Soulé
Executive Director
Alliance for Community Media

For more information: Here's our 1-page summary of the bill, and a 2-page PDF surveying some of the damage already inflicted on PEG access in recent years - damage that this bill is designed to repair.  The 4-page bill itself, and a section-by-section analysis, can be downladed here.