Louisiana Voice

They’re called snakes, those bills that tend to fly under the radar and which sail through the legislative process to passage with hardly (often times nary) a voice raised in protest.

They tend to lurk in the shadows, appearing harmless until they metaphorically bite you when you least expect it.

A prime example is the last-minute amendment to an otherwise innocuous bill back in 2014 that would’ve given then-State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson a healthy boost in his retirement in violation of provisions of a program he’d entered into earlier that would’ve frozen his pension at a certain level. That bill passed an unsuspecting legislature (unsuspecting to all, that is, but its author, then-Sen. Neil Riser and Edmonson).

State Sen. Dan Claitor prevailed in a lawsuit to stop the illegal windfall or Edmonson might be drawing an additional $100,000 per year in retirement.

Well, there’s another that just passed unanimously (save for a sprinkling of non-voting absentees) in both the House and Senate that at first glance would bring broadband internet to rural areas of the state.

SB 406 was originally authored by Sen. Beth Mizell (R-Franklinton) but the bill appeared so well-intentioned that 30 other senators and 79 representatives joined in as co-sponsors in a rare show of bipartisan support.

After all, what could be more worthy of support than bringing broadband internet to parts of the state that can’t get it right now? [Well, unless you’re Bobby Jindal, who famously spurned some $80.6 million in federal funding for just that purpose.]

The bill would appear to endorse efforts by Claiborne Electric which serves all or parts of the parishes of Claiborne, Bienville, Union, Lincoln, Webster and Ouachita.

Among the state’s seven electric cooperatives which serve about a million customers in 50 of the state’s 64 parishes, Claiborne Electric has taken the lead in pushing for rural broadband service.

Someone once said a camel (or a giraffe, depending upon which version you read) is an animal invented by a committee.

And as is the norm, when a committee convenes, an original bill becomes unrecognizable and that’s exactly what happened with SB 406.

Of course, corporations like AT&T, CenturyLink, and Cox had more than a little to do with that, with the help of a little-known political operative very likely funded by Koch Industries and Americans for Prosperity (AFP).

The Pelican Institute for Public Policy is a typical low-profile political lobbying outfit that is suitably separated from Koch and AFP as to never let Koch’s name surface but you can be fairly certain they’re lurking in the background, pulling all the appropriate strings.

In fact, on the Pelican Institute’s web page, there is an announcement of a new “team member,” one ERIC PETERSON, who joined Pelican Institute as director of policy. The announcement said that prior to joining Pelican Institute, he worked for a variety of organizations, “including Americans for Prosperity…”

Peterson is listed as the sole lobbyist for the Pelican Institute at 400 Poydras Street in New Orleans while four people—Rodney Braxton, Kevin Cunningham, Elizabeth Mangham and Ethan Melancon—are listed as lobbyists for the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, 643 Magazine Street, New Orleans. The same four are also listed as lobbyists for Southern Strategy Group and if one calls the phone number listed for Pelican Institute for Public Policy, Southern Strategy Group answers the call.

Yet the two—the Pelican Institute and the Pelican Institute for Public Policy—share the same Internet page and the same logo on their common web page.

Koch and AFP, of course, are the main financial backers of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which writes legislation introduced by state legislators.

ALEC has a long history of opposing any encroachment of areas served by member Internet Service Providers, i.e. AT&T, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, Charter Communications, DirecTV, Comcast, Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association, Time Warner, T-Mobile and Verizon. (Cox, AT&T and Verizon were among companies that discontinued their memberships in ALEC since 2012 but their opposition to competition is still pushed by ALEC on behalf of the other communications members.)

“We were actively involved with SB 406,” said Morgan Wampold, communications director for Pelican Institute which he explained was interchangeable with Pelican Institute for Public Policy. All five of the lobbyists listed above work for the same lobbying firm, he explained.

Wampold denied any knowledge of funding for his organization by Koch. “We are a 501©(3) non-profit, he said and we don’t have to divulge the names or our donors, but I’m not aware of any connection to Koch, although we do share political philosophies.”

Perhaps that is why a key paragraph in Mizell’s bill was amended to take on a totally different meaning that all but killed any rational reason for Claiborne Electric to want to pursue its objective of bringing broadband to its customers.

In the ORIGINAL bill, the wording, “An electric cooperative may grant permission to an affiliate or other broadband operator to use the electric delivery system of the electric cooperative to provide broadband services” was AMENDED to read:

“In an unserved area only, an electric cooperative may allow a broadband affiliate or other broadband operator to own, lease, construct, maintain, or operate a broadband system and provide services to the public utilizing the broadband system on the electric cooperative’s electric delivery system or other parts of its electric delivery system.” (emphasis mine)

It’s those five words “In and unserved area only” that effectively kills any chance for rural residents in Louisiana to enjoy broadband internet service.

It was on the Senate floor that a flurry of amendments were offered that allowed this camel to begin to take shape.

It was the amended version that sailed through the HOUSE on a vote of 100-0 with five members not voting, and which was passed by the SENATE by a unanimous vote of 34-0 with five not voting.

“We were very supportive of the bill,” Wampold said, although he said he was not aware who was involved in the amendments that gutted the intent of the bill.

The bill is now awaiting only the governor’s signature before becoming an official act and Claiborne CEO Mark Brown said efforts are being made to make Gov. John Bel Edwards aware of the harm those five words do to the prospects of broadband internet availability in rural Louisiana.

“The bill, in its current language, prohibits the provision of broadband because it restricts us to offering broadband only to those who do not have service,” Brown said. “Only the most sparsely-populated areas of the state—or unserved areas—would be eligible to receive broadband.”

He said if the cooperatives cannot offer broadband to all of its customers, then it would make the entire concept cost-prohibitive. As amended, it limits cooperatives to offering broadband only to areas too remote to receive the service already. “If we can’t offer it everywhere, we can’t afford to bring the service to the sparsely-populated areas,” he said.

He said a bill that was intended to make cooperatives competitive did just the opposite. “It’s the most anti-competitive bill I’ve ever seen,” he said. “Legislation should be about creating fair and open markets. This closes the market off to us. Our only hope now is to get the governor to veto the bill.”

And that, folks is a classic example of a legislative snake.