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| A busy year |
October 26, 2004 |
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Dear Friends,
It has been a busy year in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but one that made a difference.
Much of the important work of the House is done at the Committee and Subcommittee levels. That`s where bills are constructed and the details are put together.
The history of the Energy and Commerce Committee dates back to 1795, when the House first established a seven-member panel to focus on commerce issues, then called the Committee of Commerce and Manufactures.
A lot has changed in the two centuries since, but the committee`s scope remains among the most significant in the House, ranging from health legislation to telecommunications and the internet. This year was no exception.
The Committee`s Subcommittee on Health was an especially busy place over the past year, as we worked on the historic plan to add prescription drug coverage to Medicare for our lower-income seniors.
It was also in this Subcommittee that we did the work on the Project Bioshield Act of 2004, signed in to law on July 21, to put in place a strategic plan for the next ten years to protect us from and prepare a medical response to biological and chemical attacks.
I also sit on the Committee`s Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, an expanding legislative area as technological growth simultaneously creates great achievements and new concerns.
It is in this Subcommittee that we are responding to the concerns of law enforcement as wireless phone use becomes widespread. More and more emergency calls come from cell phones, but unlike traditional phone lines, responders don`t have automatic access to basic and potentially life-saving information. Even if a cell call is lost or the caller is panicked or disoriented, emergency responders are still dependent on the caller for the location. Enhanced 9-1-1 legislation that is not yet law would help emergency workers respond by providing the capabilities to respond to cell phone emergency calls.
Also in this Subcommittee, we crafted legislation to take common-sense steps to ensure broadcast decency for broadcast television and radio, especially in the hours when children are viewing or listening.
Those are just a few snapshots from a busy year.
Glad to be home,
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