4/19/2010 2:12:00 PM
Rep. Boucher's Weekly Report


By Rep. Rick Boucher


Broadband is to communities today what electricity and basic telephone service were one hundred years ago. It is the new essential infrastructure for the commercial success of all communities, urban and rural.

It is also rapidly becoming the platform by which many Americans receive all of their communications services - voice, video and data. Broadband is the bridge for remote rural communities to the American economic mainstream, but large areas in rural America are still only served by dialup Internet access connections.

For broadband truly to change the way our nation works and lives and for it to achieve its true potential as an economic driver, it must be universally available. The policy of promoting universal access to communications services for all Americans has been a foundation of our nation's economic and social development.

We have long understood and accepted the principle that universally available and affordable telephone service benefits not only the residents of high cost and difficult to serve rural areas, but also the residents of urban areas who want to communicate with them.

That same principle underpins our determination to expand broadband availability to all Americans, and we should use the same funding mechanism that has assured available and affordable rural telephone service to assist our effort to achieve universal broadband deployment.

But the Universal Service Fund, which helps to ensure that all Americans have access to voice telephone service at reasonable rates, is broken and in need of a comprehensive overhaul.

Consumers currently pay more than fourteen percent of long distance revenues into the fund, and that number will jump to more than fifteen percent in April. Moreover, the Fund under current law cannot be used to support the deployment of broadband facilities.

To remedy these shortcomings, I have authored a comprehensive reform of the program with Rep. Lee Terry, a senior Republican member of our Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet.

Our measure will stabilize the Universal Service Fund and ensure its continued viability by allowing use of the Fund for broadband deployment, broadening the base of contributions into the Fund, and imposing new restraints on distributions from the Fund.

It will also promote universal availability of broadband by requiring recipients of universal service support to provide broadband at a download speed of at least 1.5 megabits per second within five years throughout their service territories.

The National Broadband Plan released this week by the FCC is complementary to our legislative effort. It also recommends transitioning the Universal Service Fund so that it supports broadband deployment.

Our legislation is a comprehensive and forward-looking measure, which will control the spiraling growth of the Universal Service Fund while ensuring that support for both telephone services and broadband is available to the carriers which rely on it.

The communications industry affects nearly every aspect of our lives, of our communities, and of our society.

New technologies, devices, and services shape how we participate in the public debate, share our stories, keep in touch with family and friends, enhance our understanding of the increasingly interconnected world around us and conduct our daily business.

The Internet and its availability over broadband offers the best opportunity for rural communities to contribute to the global conversation and economy.

With a broadband connection, a small business in a rural community can offer any number of services to people all over the world. Students in rural schools can have access to advanced instruction by distance learning, and rural health clinics through telemedicine can offer the foremost in highly specialized care.

In my district in Southwestern Virginia, we have first hand evidence of how broadband access can improve the economic well-being and quality of life for rural residents.

With federal funds a fiber optic backbone has been built linking some of our most rural and financially unfortunate communities. Now technology based employers are locating in the region because of the data transport access the fiber backbone provides. In the Town of Lebanon in Russell County, 700 jobs in software engineering and data center management are powering a 21st Century economy.

Technology based companies are actively looking at the neighboring communities as places where,with their data access needs met, the low costs of doing business, availability of loyal and well trained workers and excellent quality of life are powerful lures for major job creating investments.

Reforming the Universal Service Fund and transitioning it to supporting rural broadband deployment will make success stories like these far more common.

Reforming the Fund is the surest way to ensure access to broadband by all, including those in our most rural, remote and under-served communities.

North Tazewell, Virginia

June 25, 2010

Freepres@Netscope.net

The Tazewell County Free Press, Inc.
P.O. Box 1205
Richlands, Virginia 24641

Dear Editor,
The voters of the United States Congressional Ninth Virginia District have a distinct honor and privilege to support the re-election of a man of distinction, a man of hard work and accomplishment as their Congressman this November 2, 2010. It is well known that Congressman Fredrick C. Boucher has worked tirelessly for his constituents to provide the type legislative support needed to improve the quality of life in the Ninth Congressional District. Congressman Boucher has done this by helping bring and encourage industry to locate and create good paying and high quality technical jobs throughout the District for almost thirty years.

As your Congressman, Representative Boucher has authorized federal funds as grants that were used to bring good, clean and safe drinking water into many communities who otherwise would not have safe drinking water. Congressman Boucher has worked politically for sewage issues, police, fire and rescue upgrades, Internet access and computer services with Broadband capability, good safe roads that provide safe passage to all residents, and many infrastructural needs to our Ninth District towns and cities.

Congressman Boucher’s office has helped many people through the bureaucratic tangle of federal issues. If you have a problem with the Federal authorities, Congressman Boucher is there to assist. Many people need help in dealing with Federal agencies. Congressman Boucher is always there to assist you and help you to apply for and receive the Federal help and benefits for which you qualify. Congressman Boucher is your friend, neighbor and servant. Congressman Boucher is a person who cares about you, your family and your community. Congressman Boucher is asking for your support and your help in his re-election bid so he can continue to work in your behalf.

It is important in these trying financial times to have a person ready, willing and able to interact for your best interest at the Federal Government level. Congressman Boucher is an experienced and respected Representative who is willing and able to work tirelessly for those important issues of life, liberty and your pursuit of happiness. The Federal Government does much to enhance these principle needs and Congressman Boucher is there to assist you in this regard. We are a better society, we are a safer society and we are a happier society because of our friend and neighbor Congressman Fredrick C. Boucher.

Congressman Boucher will be in a neighborhood near you over the coming few months. Please stop in and say hi, tell him how much you appreciate him.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Vernon

Rick's staff is capable, perservering, and trained well by the Congressman to provide excellent service. Contrast that with our senators' staffs, particularly Webb's, who seem to be incompetent at constituent service.

U.S. Representative Rick Boucher announced today that, at his urging, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, through its Rural Development Agency, is providing a federal grant in the amount of $46,875 to the Town of Pocahontas to assist with the purchase of two new police vehicles for the Town's police department.
"The federal funds which I am announcing today will enable the Pocahontas Police Department to acquire 2 new patrol vehicles, which will enable the Department to respond to emergencies in the Town more efficiently," Boucher said.
With the benefit of the federal funds, the Town of Pocahontas will purchase two new patrol vehicles outfitted with lights, communications and safety equipment. The vehicles will replace older models currently in use by the Town's police department, which have become unsafe and expensive to maintain due to high mileage.
"It is important to ensure the safety of our law enforcement personnel by providing them with best equipment possible. Today's announcement of federal funding to purchase new police vehicles for the Town of Pocahontas is a necessary step in protecting the people who protect us," Boucher said.
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RSS + - Text Size Print Share This Home > News> Opinion> Letters To The Editor Virginia delegate sides with big utility companies, writer laments
By Letters To The Editor
Published: April 3, 2010
» 1 Comment | Post a Comment
I read with great disappointment your story about state Delegate H. Morgan Griffith opposing efforts to stop Appalachian power’s rate increases. He must not understand what families in this part of the state are going through if he stood behind the power company. I know lots of families where people have to choose between paying their electric bill and putting three meals on the table. Especially right now, in these tough economic times, how can he stand against commonsense reforms?

I’m sure he says that they’ve done enough but it’s pretty clear they haven’t. APco has proposed 13 rate hikes in the last five years, including a December proposal that would raise residential bills by an average of 15 percent. Do you know anyone who has seen a 15 percent salary increase? Maybe Morgan Griffith has.

Griffith responded with some politicians excuse about the legislative process to defend his standing by APco. But what we all know is that he doesn’t understand what we’re going through and he’s siding with the big utility companies.

It’s clear that he wasn’t representing the people of this district in Richmond and he probably wouldn’t represent them in Congress either.

Temple L. Kessinger, Jr.

Covington, Va.

http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/254516

Editorial: Cap and trade and Boucher
The incumbent from coal country did vote for it -- and did weaken it considerably.
Republican challenger Morgan Griffith is calling Rep. Rick Boucher deceitful in a campaign ad that mentions the Ninth District congressman's role in House-passed energy legislation.
It is Griffith, though, who misleads when complaining that Boucher's ad suggests the 14term Democrat "opposed coal-killing cap-and-trade legislation, when he in fact voted for it." The ad suggests no such thing.
Boucher did vote for the American Clean Energy and Security Act, now stalled in the Senate, which includes a cap-and-trade mechanism for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, such as coal. The congressman doesn't deny this.
His ad says he "took on his own party to protect coal jobs in the energy bill." And he did -- to the dismay of many environmentalists.
Boucher was a key player in shaping the energy bill in ways that protect coal interests at the cost of slowing and weakening efforts to curb heat-trapping greenhouses gases, such as carbon dioxide, that contribute to global warming.
One example: The bill's most vilified provision, cap and trade, would cap carbon emissions, but mitigate the impact on the economy by providing coal-dependent industries with tradeable emissions allowances. Boucher made that far more coal-friendly than environmentalist backers wanted it to be.
Originally, the legislation would have required industries to buy the allowances at auction, with proceeds to go into clean-energy research. Boucher was credited with -- or, depending on one's priorities, blamed for -- working to change the bill to give electric utilities 90 percent of their emissions allowances free. His objective, he said at the time, was to keep coal production up and electric rates down.
Whether any of this ever happens is anybody's guess. The Senate has yet to act on an energy bill, which might look a whole lot or nothing like the House version. Thus far, cap and trade has had zero impact on coal jobs, electric bills -- on anything, except this year's congressional campaigns.
Boucher did vote for it, and he "took on his own party" to weaken its clean energy provisions substantially. Both can be true, and, in fact, both are.