Sample Letter One
The Honorable Sen.
United States Senate
Washington DC 20510
RE: S. 786
Dear Senator _________:
I am writing to you as a resident and voter in Pennsyvania
to ask you to oppose S. 786, legislation introduced by
Sen. Rick Santorum that calls for giving private, commercially
operated weather services exclusive access to weather data
now developed by the National Weather Service.
Such a drastic change in the public’s access to
critical weather information could endanger the safety
of boat owners who routinely rely on this information to
make basic decisions about when to head out of port or
when to return.
The bill would limit the National Weather Service to issuing
severe weather forecasts and warnings for the protection
of life and property. This would be detrimental to mariners
because “non-emergency” weather data such as
wind speed, tides, currents and the movement of fronts
that would not be considered “severe” or life
threatening for those on land could easily lead to hazardous
conditions at sea.
Both recreational and commercial mariners rely on NOAA
Weather Radio for constant updates on conditions and under
the Santorum bill; these would be halted and become the
exclusive domain of commercial providers. Boaters would
be required to invest in special equipment and pay costly
subscription fees for a commercial service or go without.
One existing service costs $1,500 for the receiver and
$695 a year to subscribe.
Furthermore, S. 786 will not save the federal government
money because the National Weather Service will still have
to collect and monitor all the same weather data in order
to only issuing warnings of severe weather. Boat owners,
like all citizens, would be paying twice for the same information,
once in their taxes to support the Weather Service and
again to buy weather forecasts from a private provider.
This, in our opinion, would set a bad precedent for many
other federal services.
S. 786 is ill-conceived legislation that would establish
a dangerous precedent. I urge you to oppose this legislation
and vote against it should it be considered in committee
or on the floor.
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
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