August 2, 1999
DEAR AALL MEMBERS:
Last Thursday, members of the Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection unanimously passed Chairman Billy Tauzin's Manager's Amendment to H.R. 1858 (the Committee's database protection bill) that included the following amendment drafted by the Washington Affairs Office:
Protection under this chapter shall not extend to primary legal materials, including court opinions, statutes, codes, regulations, or administrative agency decisions, from any Federal, state, or local jurisdiction, unless such materials were permanently available on an interactive computer network, without restriction, in an official, no-fee, publicly accessible electronic form at the time that the extraction occurred.
The full Commerce Committee mark-up will be held this week, and it is CRITICALLY IMPORTANT that the full committee adopt our language. We need to apply even more pressure with our representatives to offset opposition to our amendment from a number of quarters who oppose H.R. 1858 and support the Judiciary's bill H.R. 354 (which is bad for libraries and consumers).
Issue briefs about our amendment and the two database protection bills are attached, fyi.
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED NOW!
Please draft letters to the leadership of the House Commerce Committee and to your Rep if he/she serves on the Committee. Urge them to adopt the Subcommittee's Manager's Amendment language regarding the exclusion for primary legal materials.
Two sample letters follow, as does a list of the Committee members. Names on the list preceded by an * are members of the Subcommittee, who should get a THANK YOU LETTER for supporting the Manager's Amendment during the Subc. hearing.
All other Committee members should get the first sample letter.
Let's also try to get as many gracious thank you letters to Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) who continues to be one of our strongest supporters. His address is below; his fax is: 202.225.0442
This is time-sensitive, so please FAX all letters; the Committee's FAX number, 202.225.1919, can be used if there is no published fax # for your own Rep.
SAMPLE LETTER:
The Honorable Thomas Bliley
Chairman, House Committee on Commerce
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
BY FAX: 202.225.0011
Dear Chairman Bliley:
As [your constituent and] a member of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), I urgently request your support for the Manager's Amendment to H.R. 1858, the Consumer and Investor Access to Information Act of 1999. This amendment was unanimously approved by the Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection at the mark-up hearing on July 29, 1999. AALL believes that the following language in the Manager's Amendment is crucial to the ability of the American public to have equal and equitable access to our Nation's body of legal information:
Protection under this chapter shall not extend to primary legal materials, including court opinions, statutes, codes, regulations, or administrative agency decisions, from any Federal, state, or local jurisdiction, unless such materials were permanently available on an interactive computer network, without restriction, in an official, no-fee, publicly accessible electronic form at the time that the extraction occurred.
I am attaching a AALL Issue Brief that provides background on why this amendment to H.R. 1858 is critically important to ensure that the American public--as citizens and taxpayers--be guaranteed equal access to primary legal materials. If legal information falls under a new database protection regime, then Congress will have denied your constituents, indeed all Americans, one of the most fundamental rights of our democracy, access to the law of the land.
Please feel free to add something on a personal level, about the users of your library.....)
Rep. ****, I strongly urge your support for this important amendment when the full Committee meets this week to mark-up H.R. 1858. Please do not hesitate to contact me for more information about this very important matter. Thank you.
Sincerely,
SAMPLE THANK YOU LETTER:
Honorable W.J. "Billy" Tauzin
Chairman, Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection
House Committee on Commerce
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
BY FAX: 202.225.0563
Dear Representative Tauzin,
As a member of the American Association of Law Libraries and (your chapter?), I wish to take this opportunity to thank you for incorporating AALL's language in the Manager's Amendment that the Subcommittee unanimously endorsed during the mark-up of H.R. 1858 on July 29, 1999.
The availability of legal information to all people is a necessary requirement for a just and democratic society. We believe that primary legal information produced at all levels of government must be available to all citizens. AALL offered this amendment excluding primary legal materials because we believe that the American public has a right to have equitable and equal access to our Nation's body of legal information.
(Please feel free to add something on a personal level, about the users of your library.....)
Thank you again, Rep. Tauzin, for including the AALL language in your Manager's Amendment to H.R. 1858, and for your continued strong support as it goes forward to the full Committee this week.
Sincerely,
Majority Members, House Commerce Committee
- * Tom Bliley, Virginia, Chairman
- 2409 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2815
- * W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, Louisiana (Subc. Chairman)
- 2183 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4031
- * Michael G. Oxley, Ohio
- 2233 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2676
- Michael Bilirakis, Florida
- 2369 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5755
- Joe Barton, Texas
- 2264 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2002
- Fred Upton, Michigan
- 2333 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3761
- * Cliff Stearns, Florida
- 2227 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5744
- * Paul E. Gillmor, Ohio
- 1203 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-6405
- James C. Greenwood, Pennsylvania
- 2436 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4276
- * Christopher Cox, California
- 2402 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5611
- * Nathan Deal, Georgia
- 2437 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5211
- * Steve Largent, Oklahoma
- 426 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2211
- Richard Burr, North Carolina
- 1513 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2071
- Brian P. Bilbray, California
- 1530 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2040
- Ed Whitfield, Kentucky
- 236 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3115
- Greg Ganske, Iowa
- 1108 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4426
- Charlie Norwood, Georgia
- 1707 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4101
- Tom A. Coburn, Oklahoma
- 429 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2701
- Rick Lazio, New York
- 2444 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3335
- * Barbara Cubin,
- 1114 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2311
- * James E. Rogan, California
- 126 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4176
- * John Shimkus, Illinois
- 513 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5271
- * Heather Wilson, New Mexico
- 226 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-6316
- John B. Shadegg, Arizona
- 430 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3361
- * Charles "Chip" Pickering, Mississippi
- 427 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5031
- * Vito Fossella, New York
- 431 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3371
- * Roy Blunt, Missouri
- 217 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-6536
- Ed Bryant, Tennessee
- 408 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2811
- * Robert Ehrlich, Maryland
- 1714 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3061
Minority Members, House Commerce Committee
- * John D. Dingell, Michigan (Ranking Member)
- 2328 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4071
- Henry A. Waxman, California
- 2204 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3976
- * Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts (Subc. Ranking Member)
- 2108 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2836
- Ralph M. Hall, Texas
- 2221 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-6673
- * Rick Boucher, Virginia
- 2329 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3861
- Edolphus Towns, New York
- 2232 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5936
- Frank Pallone, New Jersey
- 420 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4671
- Sherrod Brown, Ohio
- 201 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3401
- * Bart Gordon, Tennessee
- 2368 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4231
- Peter Deutsch, Florida
- 204 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-7931
- * Bobby L. Rush, Illinois
- 2416 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4372
- * Anna G. Eshoo, California
- 205 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-8104
- * Ron Klink, Pennsylvania
- 2448 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2565
- Bart Stupak, Minnesota
- 2348 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4735
- * Eliot l. Engel, New York
- 2303 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2464
- * Thomas C. Sawyer, Ohio
- 1414 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5231
- * Albert Wynn, Maryland
- 407 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-8699
- * Gene Green, Texas
- 2429 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-1688
- * Karen McCarthy, Missouri
- 1330 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4535
- Ted Strickland, Ohio
- 336 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5705
- Diana DeGette, Colorado
- 1339 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4431
- Thomas M. Barrett, Wisconsin
- 1214 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3571
- Bill Luther, Minnesota
- 117 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2271
- Lois Capps, California
- 1118 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3601
Mary Alice Baish
Associate Washington Affairs Representative
E.B. Williams Law Library
Georgetown University Law Center
111 G Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20001-1417
Voice: 202.662.9200
Fax: 202.662.9202
E-mail: baish@law.georgetown.edu
Internet: www.ll.georgetown.edu/aallwash