Nebraska

Nebraska Farmers Union President John Hansen said, "LB645 is not an April Fools Day joke. It is an extraordinarily short sighted, backwards looking, special interest driven effort to close the door for Nebraska to explore a promising new technology that could provide high speed broadband Internet access to rural Nebraskans at a very cost effective rate. It is essential that rural Nebraskans get up to speed on LB645 and weigh in with their state senators on LB645 which would kill this potential new technology."

LB645, sponsored by Sen. Kermit Brashear of Omaha was sent to General File from the Transportation Committee on Feb. 10, and made a Transportation Priority Bill March 1.

Hansen said it is likely LB645 will be scheduled for first round General File soon.

"If you did not know better, you might conclude that LB645 was an April Fool's Day joke. Unfortunately, LB645 is no joke, rural Nebraska must take it seriously." Hansen listed three main reasons:

1. The major telecommunications companies are pushing hard for LB645.

2. Sen. Kermit Brashear, the Speaker of the Legislature, introduced LB645.

3. The Transportation Committee selected LB645 as a Committee Priority Bill.

Nebraska Farmers Union sent a letter to the Nebraska State Senators explaining that many rural Nebraskans are still not able to get affordable, broadband, high speed Internet connection. The letter pointed out that our state public power system has done a tremendous job of providing, quality, dependable, and affordable electricity for all Nebraskans, even in sparsely populated areas of the state.

In part, the letter said, "As a result, our ratepayers have already paid for a statewide infrastructure to distribute electric power throughout the state. LB645 would preclude the possibility of using this existing statewide infrastructure to provide broadband high-speed Internet access to mostly rural people who are not yet on the information highway."

Farmers Union's letter said their position to oppose LB645 was based on their belief that the public power infrastructure would be used by private sector companies to provide Internet services, and that public power companies would not directly compete against private providers.

Date: 4/21/05