Letter to the editor published

I wrote a letter to the editor of the Birmingham News and the Mobile Register about the billboard amendment to the Iraq funding bill. I was surprised that neither paper had covered it, because the local press in Tennessee (Sen. Alexander) and Florida (Sen. Martinez) had done so. I felt Sen. Shelby needed to get some credit.

I did have to edit my original letter for space, so I've printed that longer version here for your information.

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One of the unreported aspects of the U.S. Congress debate on the Iraq supplemental appropriation was the effort by Sen. Harry Reid to undercut the Highway Beautification Act in favor of the billboard industry. And one of the unsung heroes of the successful efforts to stop it was Sen. Richard Shelby.

Sen. Reid had a provision inserted into the war funding bill that would have allowed some states, including Alabama, to permit reconstruction of non-conforming billboards destroyed by hurricanes. Reid attempted twice last year to have the same provision added to appropriations bills and was stymied both times.

The nonconforming billboards are those that were in place when the HBA was passed nearly 50 years ago. They do not comply with the rules regarding placement, distance and so on, but were “grandfathered” in. They could not be legally built today. Many city officials on Alabama’s Gulf coast did not want the destroyed billboards to be put back.

Members and supporters of Scenic Alabama contacted Sen. Shelby as a representative of one of the affected states, and as a member of the Senate committee that would consider Reid’s amendment. Many of our members also called Sen. Reid’s office to ask him to withdraw his amendment. In Washington, the national Scenic America organization lobbied lawmakers.

Sen. Shelby agreed to co-sponsor an amendment to remove the Reid provision, along with Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida. Ultimately, the provision was killed when Sen. Alexander called a point of order on the Senate floor to have Reid’s provision stricken because it was general legislation on an appropriations bill.

Both Sen. Alexander and Sen. Martinez have been covered in their local press for their work on protecting communities, but the Birmingham News / Mobile Press-Register inexplicably did not cover this local issue. We want to make sure that the people of Alabama know that Sen. Shelby listened to the dozens of people who called him, and that he is willing to take action to protect local communities from billboard blight.