Amateurs in other countries universally are permitted to use modern digital data speeds denied amateurs in the United States. United States amateurs can hear and decode higher speed signals every day, but are not permitted to respond with the same protocol. (7) This situation is not because of any affirmative decision, but simply because there has been an 8-year unexplained lack of action to update the rules. (8) It is embarrassing that in recent years, including this year, radio amateurs have had to apply to the Commission for temporary waivers, which are always granted, of the limit on data communications to efficiently manage emergency, health, and welfare messages from hurricane-prone Caribbean islands, and even from within the United States. Amateurs in the Caribbean, as in other areas of the world, generally are using equipment and software developed by the amateur community and promoted by the International Telecommunication Union specifically to ensure communications capabilities during times of severe weather. (9) Amateur radio has led many young people into scientific and engineering professions, including many related to the digital services and technologies that are at the heart of the wireless communications marketplace of today. The incentive to work on improving data communications technologies is the ability to experiment on the airwaves and to employ improved capabilities both casually and in times of need. (10) This capability should be restored to radio amateurs in the United States. 3. Repeal of symbol (baud) rate limits and adoption of 2.8 kHz bandwidth limit Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Federal Communications Commission shall revise section 97.307(f) of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, to— (1) repeal the symbol (baud) rate limits described in paragraphs (3) and (4) of such section