news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050527/ap_on_go_co/santorum_s_storm
Opponents say the bill would endanger the public by preventing the dissem ination of certain weather data, and force taxpayers to pay for the data twice. The bill would prevent the weather service from competing for ce rtain services offered by the private sector. "I think the timing of it is what makes it so suspect," said Melanie Sloa n, executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in G overnment, a Democratic-leaning watchdog group. "It's like here's the mo ney and you're going to do what I want." Santorum said the $2,000 contribution, received from AccuWeather CEO Joel Myers on April 12, came during a fundraiser in State College that happe ned to be two days before the bill was filed. The donation was disclosed in the April filing to the FEC by Santorum's P AC, America's Foundation. "I don't think there's any coincidence between the two," Santorum said. " It's just that I happened to have a fundraiser in the town he was in." Combined, Joel Myers and his brother, Barry Myers, AccuWeather's executiv e vice president, have donated more than $11,000 to Santorum and the Rep ublican Party since 2003, according to FEC filings compiled by Political MoneyLine, a campaign finance tracking group. Barry Myers said it was ridiculous to think there was a correlation betwe en the "modest" donations and the filing of the bill. Santorum said his campaign could likely raise and spend $25 million for t he 2006 election. "We have no connection to how bills are filed, or how they are drafted or dropped at any given point in time," Myers said.
"It certainly raises questions about motivation as to why someone would p ush a policy that is so obviously crummy," McLaughlin said. Under the proposed legislation, the weather service would be allowed to o ffer particular types of services only if the private sector does not of fer them, a provision similar to rules the agency was guided by for 14 y ears until last year. When the rule changed, the weather service and National Oceanic and Atmos pheric Administration expanded into areas already served by the commerci al weather industry, according to Santorum's office. In his letter, Nelson said Santorum's bill would bar weather service fore casters from giving one-on-one interviews to media.
When four hurricanes struck Florida last year, the weather servic e Web site received 9 billion hits, Nelson said. He urged Bush to "publicly oppose this legislative attempt to push the we ather service back to a pre-Internet era and restrict the public's right to access government information." Trent Duffy, deputy White House spokesman, said the administration typica lly does not comment on legislation that has not reached the floor of th e House or Senate. The bill has been referred to the Senate Commerce Com mittee, but no hearing has been scheduled. Santorum said critics have misinterpreted the bill's purpose. He said sev ere weather information would still be released, and it would restore th e old rules that were changed last year. "The National Weather Service is not focused on it's core mission of prot ecting the nation's lives and property," Myers said. "There have been nu merous examples in the last year, situations where they have not devoted the resources to that."
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