June 20, 2013 Update - Take Action to Oppose Thomas E. Wheeler for FCC Chairman

June 20, 2013 Update - Take Action to Oppose Thomas E. Wheeler for FCC Chairman

The Wheeler confirmation hearing for FCC Chairman at the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation was held on June 18th. View the archived Wheeler hearing webcast.

As of June 20th, no date has been set for the Committee vote on the Wheeler nomination. You can call the Commerce Committee at 202-224-0411 to ask when the vote will be.

Take these steps NOW to oppose the Wheeler nomination. Even if you already have, you can send your messages again if you so choose.

The contact e-mail addresses were updated on June 20, 2013. Staff turnover is a regular event in Congress, so a few of these e-mail addresses have changed.

First Step - Send an e-mail NOW to all the Members of the Senate Commerce Committee to voice your opposition to the Wheeler nomination. Your e-mail should be sent to the Telecommunications staff person for each Committee member. This Commerce Committee e-mail list provides all the information you will need.

Your message can be as simple as this. You are free to use this example:

I request that you vote to oppose the nomination of Thomas Wheeler for Chairman of the FCC. Mr. Wheeler’s actions in his twelve years as President of the Cellular Telephone and Internet Association (CTIA) present too great a conflict of interest for him to be responsible for regulating the wireless industry after being its chief lobbyist from 1992-2004.

Cell phone health effects research is one key example of Mr. Wheeler’s conflict of interest. While President of the CTIA Mr. Wheeler’s actions regarding the CTIA-sponsored cell phone health effects research program were strongly criticized by FDA’s Elizabeth Jacobson. As reported byRCR Wireless News

Ms. Jacobson criticized Wheeler in a July 1993 letter for making press statements about industry-funded cellular cancer research that displayed “an unwarranted confidence that these products will be found to be absolutely safe.” 

Jacobson also said in that letter that readers of CTIA press material might “wonder how impartial the research can be when its stated goal is ‘a determination to reassure consumers,’ and when the research sponsors predict in advance that ‘we expect the new research to reach the same conclusion, that cellular phones are safe.”‘

This history makes Mr. Wheeler the wrong choice to oversee the FCC’s current rulemaking to update its radiofrequency radiation human exposure policy.

See The EMRadiation Policy Institute’s opposition letter for Mr. Wheeler’s history as the principal lobbyist for the wireless industry from 1992-2004 and the influence he had on provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Scientists from the BioInitiative Working Group have sent a letter to the members of Commerce Committee asking them to reject Mr. Wheeler’s nomination.

Second Step – Send an e-mail NOW to all 100 Senators’ Telecommunications Staff person. Use the same message that you sent to the Commerce Committee Members. Should Mr. Wheeler’s nomination be approved by the Commerce Committee, it must then be approved by the entire Senate. This can transpire with very short notice. This e-mail list of all Senators’ telecom staffprovides all of those e-mail addresses.

Should you prefer to call the Senate offices, this list provides the telephone number for each Senator’s office in Washington DC.

Thank you for taking action now.

http://www.emrpolicy.org/news/action/index.htm