Congress is Listening to You

Dear Speed Matters Supporter,

When you visited CWA's SpeedMatters.org website and took our speed test, did you realize that you were helping to change the way Congress thinks about high speed Internet in the United States? Well, you were.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee just unanimously approved the Broadband Census of America Act. Over the summer the Senate Commerce committee approved the Broadband Data Improvement Act. These bills will create a more accurate measure of broadband access across the country so that we can begin to close the digital divide.

The Communications Workers of America (CWA), sponsor of the Speed Matters project, played a critical role in bringing the need for better data to Congress' attention. And we were able to do that because of the data we have compiled from people like you.

We need to maintain our momentum and continue to build our data bank. We want to make sure that as these bills are debated by the full Congress we have hundreds of Speed Test results from every Congressional District.

Ask your friends, family members and coworkers to take the CWA Speed Matters speed test:

http://speedmatters.org/action/tell-friends.html

The United States has fallen to 16th in the world in high speed Internet penetration. Unfortunately, we do not know the full extent of our problem because our data is so poor. We don’t know who has access, at what speed, or how much they pay.

The House’s Broadband Census of America Act and Senate’s Broadband Data Improvement Act aim to fix that and moving the bills out of committee is a critical first step. But they will still need approval from the entire House and Senate – as well as the President’s signature – to turn them into law.

With our leaders in Washington listening, we need to step up our efforts for a national high speed Internet policy and gather the facts we need to move our cause forward. Ask your friends, family members and coworkers to take the CWA Speed Matters speed test:

http://speedmatters.org/action/tell-friends.html

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Beth Allen
speedmatters.org Online Mobilization Coordinator