Once he started walking the halls of Congress during ESA’s Day on Capitol Hill, Past President Charles "Dom” D’Ascoli didn’t have to work hard to find a familiar face. Rep. Juan Vargas, a first-term congressman from California’s 51st District, is married to Dom’s niece, Adrienne D’Ascoli.

Dom was accompanied by California’s delegation to the last appointment of the day in Rep. Vargas’ office. The meeting lasted nearly 90 minutes, as the Congressman warmly greeted the group and engaged them in a thorough review of each of ESA’s key legislative issues.

Being part of the family has its privileges: Afterward, Rep. Vargas gave Dom a ride back to the St. Gregory Hotel and stayed to mingle with delegates during the Honeywell Platinum Reception.

Rep. Vargas met Dom's niece when they both attended Fordham University in New York City, and later attended Harvard, where they were classmates with President Obama. They currently reside in San Diego with two daughters, Rosa and Helena.

Adrienne is a vice president at the San Diego Foundation, a community resource for receiving, managing and distributing charitable funds to organizations in the area.

Free Webinar: ESA Day on Capitol Hill - Issues Briefing

Date: Monday, April 29, at 1 p.m. EST / Noon CST

Moderator: Lynn Comer, ESA Government Relations Committee Chair

Panelist: John Chwat, ESA Director of Government Relations

Click here to register!

One of the key priorities of ESA's Government Relations program is to provide an opportunity for officers, members, associates, Chartered Chapters and industry representatives to meet face-to-face with U.S. House and Senate members and their staff on issues impacting the business operations of the membership.

ESA will be holding its seventh annual Day on Capitol Hill on May 6-7 in Washington, D.C., where attendees will take an active role in advancing the concerns of the association, and the electronic life safety and security industry.

In previous years, the conference usually kicked off with a special issues briefing for attendees by ESA Director of Government Relations John Chwat. The purpose was to get attendees prepared to lobby their congressional representatives: a "Lobbying 101” briefing, so to speak.

This year, ESA wants attendees to feel more comfortable and informed about the issues before they arrive in D.C. That is why we have organized a free webinar on Monday, April 29, to give advanced, valuable insight into the issues that will be discussed on Capitol Hill, and how to influence the US House and Senate Members and Staffs that you will be interacting with.

Attendees are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to learn more about the issues you will be discussing with members of Congress. And if you haven't yet decided to come to Capitol Hill, click here to learn more about how you can play a part.

• Be aware of legislation and any potential challenge it poses. Knowledge is power, and ESA's Government Relations program tracks bills in all 50 states through monthly State Legislative Reports included in the Government Insider newsletter, and at www.ESAweb.org/SLR. It only takes a minute to download the report and learn what’s going on in your state.
  
  
• Take action. Chwat says it’s crucial for everyone – you, your colleagues, employees, customers, family, friends, and anybody else you can mobilize – to inform elected officials and their staffs how proposed bills will help or hurt your business and our industry.
  
  
• Don’t wait. State legislatures occasionally move with surprising speed, Chwat says, and the window of opportunity closes before you know it. In Michigan, the bills were introduced in September and were signed into law by December, thanks to considerable pressure by AT&T. The game was over almost as quickly as it began.

If you thought 2012 was a turbulent year for government at both the state and federal levels, then strap in: 2013 is shaping up to be equally as busy and challenging, particularly for the electronic security industry. Congress has just seated a new bunch of first-term senators and representatives (as well as a number of new committee leaders) for its 113^th session, and most states will be getting ready to convene their annual legislative sessions. The stage is set for what could be one of the most active years in recent memory.

There’s something you can do to get ready, though. Make plans now to be a part of ESA’s Day on Capitol Hill, May 6-7 in Washington, D.C. It’s the centerpiece event for ESA’s active legislative effort, led by ESA Government Relations Director John Chwat, a hard-working volunteer Government Relations committee chaired by Lynn Comer, and a number of vigilant and dedicated Chartered Chapters.

By joining other ESA members in our nation’s capital for an active day of networking and visiting with congressmen and women, as well as their staff members, you’re helping to ensure that your interests are even more effectively represented.

"We know there’s a lot of skepticism and belief that lawmakers only listen to big money,” Chwat says. "That simply isn’t the case. Think of all the different issues that representatives are asked to vote on; there’s no way that they can be experts on everything. So that’s where our members come in, meeting with as many legislators and staff members as possible, and making sure that they understand our industry and our issues.”

This year will be particularly challenging on a state-by-state basis as a number of legislatures – including Arizona, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Virginia, Oklahoma, Illinois, Wyoming and Michigan, to mention just a few – tackle issues such as licensing, background checks, training, certification and "e-waste” disposal.

In addition, a barrage of federal regulations is expected, including the expanded impact of new healthcare regulations on small businesses nationwide.

ESA President John Knox likes to call Day on Capitol Hill the "Super Bowl” of ESA’s Government Relations efforts. He noted that more than 60 people attended the event last year, and he’d like to see that number grow in 2013.

"This is the event that sets the tone for the rest of the year,” Knox says, "but I believe we can grow the event even more. I’d like to get participation from new faces and new voices, especially our younger members. The more involvement from members, the more influence our industry will have, making an even greater impact.”

The anticipation is building. Block out Monday and Tuesday, May 6-7, on your travel calendar, and keep an eye on this newsletter for more reasons why Day on Capitol Hill should be on your agenda this year.

Click here to learn more about the event, or contact ESA Events Manager Michelle Whitaker at (972) 795-0709, or via e-mail at Michelle.Whitaker@ESAweb.org.

The viability of POTS has been in decline for some time, as increasing numbers of customers opt for other types of telephone systems. Whether it’s fiber-optic, cable, cellular or some other mode, plain old copper just isn’t cutting it anymore – unless you live in a rural area, of course, or find yourself in the middle of a disaster like Hurricane Sandy, which sent many victims in search of traditional pay phones after more sophisticated technology had failed.

That’s why the Telecommunications Act of 1934 specified that telephone companies have a responsibility to maintain service to communities, unless the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says it’s OK to stop. That places a burden on providers like AT&T and Verizon Communications to keep POTS going despite increased maintenance requirements and ever-declining profits from a shrinking group of potential customers.

AT&T took a step on Nov. 7 toward pushing POTS further into oblivion, asking the FCC to begin discussions about discontinuing support for POTS, replacing it with a 4G wireless network that will reach about 99 percent of the nation’s customers when combined with networks from other carriers. The news was buried deep inside a press release about AT&T "Project Velocity” initiative, in which 300 million U.S. customers will be covered by 4G LTE by the end of 2014. This represents an increase of approximately 50 million from the 250 million AT&T had promised by the end of 2013.

According to an analysis in the Wall Street Journal, the plan represents a compromise: AT&T will spend billions of dollars extending its wireless network to sparsely populated areas if the federal government will let it and other carriers off the hook from the regulatory burdens of supporting good old POTS.

This creates a conflict between critics who maintain that AT&T is abandoning its obligation to support POTS customers, and advocates who say that it’s unreasonable to expect AT&T and Verizon to keep pouring money into a network that is unsustainable in the long-term.

In an opinion piece on publicknowledge.org, analyst Harold Feld applauds AT&T’s willingness to make the investment, but notes a number of key issues, including:

• What happens to the 1 percent of customers who still would not be covered by the expanded network, and who would be faced with an eventual loss of POTS? This potentially represents thousands of consumers who would lose access to basic telephone service.
  
  
• Reliability becomes a factor. As noted earlier, there were multiple reports during Hurricane Sandy of victims whose wireless phones or IP-based services weren’t working. They were left searching for the nearest payphone, since POTS systems were largely unaffected by power outages. Copper is built to 99.9999 percent reliability, Feld says, and wireless and IP-based networks come nowhere near that standard.

Most parties seem to agree that a dialog about the future is a good thing. The sticking points are considerable, though, and a solution is far from clear. As the Journal points out, "The government is going to have to meet industry at least halfway in figuring out how to handle those who would be left stranded if a competitive industry were to build out its wireless and fixed networks only where some reasonable facsimile of the profit motive dictates.”

In other words: How can businesses still make money while providing communications services that customers rely on, and have been guaranteed for decades without forgetting about the rural 1 percent? And how big a role should government play in that solution?

One thing is certain: To reach its goal by the end of 2014, AT&T will have its hands full balancing its expansion into rural areas without sacrificing service or reliability.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, "AT&T Seeks a Lifeline on Land Lines”; TheVerge.com, "AT&T to cover 300 Million Residents with LTE by the end of 2014”; PublicKnowledge.org, "Shutting Down the Phone System Gets Real: The Implications of AT&T Upgrading to an All IP Network.”