The bill has little support and no co sponsors. It is currently in
committee. It is a good idea to write to your representative and voice your
objection:

Title: A bill to clarify the duties and responsibilities of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service,
and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Santorum, Rick [PA] (introduced 4/14/2005)      Cosponsors (None)
Latest Major Action: 4/14/2005 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read
twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

ALL ACTIONS: (color indicates Senate actions) 4/14/2005:
Introductory remarks on measure. (CR S3658)
4/14/2005:
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation.
4/21/2005:
Star Print ordered on the bill.
Frank Burrows

UK people have had to pay for weather information for twenty years.  Mrs
Thatcher introduced the charge on recommendations from US think tank.
Probably hoping to set a trend President Reagan would follow.  This may have
succeeded but resistance from USCG scuppered it, pointing out it was illegal
to charge the public for information gathered at public expense.  They also
opposed UK charging for weather information as HM Meteorological Office uses
information supplied by US sources in compiling forecasts threatening to
stop the supply of information to the UK.  US Government pervented this so
we have to pay but you dont.  Something else to come out of US that will
come to you soon, in Europe, public, pedestrian and boating use of coastal
areas near ports is being increasingly banned under the US anti terrorism
regulations, if they can make it stick in Europe it will be introduced in
the US and your recent discussion about hassle on the Great Lakes will be
irrelevent as you wont be allowed on them.

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Patrick:

You all need to get together and protest this unjust tax!  We had an issue
with a tea tax and we eventually got it sorted out although it got a little
messy. You might want to get the deal over the warm beer straightened out
at the same time. <g>

I am curious how they charge you. For instance you want to find out the
boating weather for the weekend. Do you have to subscribe to a private
service or does the government sell the service? Do they charge per
forecast or do you have to buy an annual subscription?  For thunderstorms
we can log on to the government weather service and look at live images.
Several TV stations have there own radars and show them on their websites
for free, in addition. If you want to find out what the winds and seas will
be for the next couple of days what options do you have in the UK?

Frank Burrows

At 08:12 PM 6/24/2005 +0000, you wrote: