NCGA Disappointed in Senate’s
Failure to Pass Junk Fax Legislation (11-29-04)
The National Corn Growers
Association (NCGA) expresses disappointment in the Senate’s
failure to pass the Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2004, which would
have restored provisions allowing associations
such as NCGA to communicate via fax with other associations and
businesses.
If passed, the legislation
would have reinstated the "established
business relationship" (EBR) provision that allows faxing
by associations and legitimate businesses. The EBR provision, which
had been in effect for 10 years, was repealed by the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) last summer.
“NCGA, along with the other fax ban coalition members, is
concerned that failure to restore the EBR provisions may have extreme
consequences on the way associations do business,” said Dave
Boettger, chair of NCGA’s Grower Services Action Team. “We
worked with members of the Senate to address any concerns they
had regarding the bill and to voice our concerns about the financial
burden that will be placed upon associations and businesses if
this law does not pass,”
Boettger also said faxing
between farmers and businesses is a common occurrence. For example,
he said he routinely receives receive
faxes from established business partners such as seed dealers. “This
legislation has an impact on associations and it also impacts NCGA’s
grower members,” he said.
According to NCGA, an amendment was agreed upon by all parties
that will require fax numbers used to send unsolicited commercial
faxes under EBR exception will have to be obtained either from
the owner of the fax number or from a public source like a directory
or a web site. The amendment protects all business fax numbers
currently being used and does not allow use of residential fax
numbers.
Though the measure did not pass during the lame-duck session,
the legislation is not dead, NCGA leaders said. The association
and other interested parties will continue to work with Congress
to ensure the measure passes during the next session.
“Unfortunately, there was limited time to resolve debate
over this legislation, but we are convinced that this bill will
be considered in the future,” said Boettger.
Originally, the new
FCC rules were to take effect Jan. 1, 2005, but NCGA and nearly
600 other businesses and associations requested
and received a stay until June 30. “The stay will buy us
more time to have the FCC rules reversed,” Boettger said.