AUGUSTA – Telephones – both cells and landlines – as well as television, radio and the Internet are all integral to most Americans’ daily lives. For the first time in a decade, Congress is rewriting the laws that govern telecommunications and two Maine lawmakers are in the middle of the battle.

“This is legislation that will touch every American, every Mainer,” U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe said this week. “I will say that overall, the bill that came out of [the Senate Commerce] Committee is good for Maine, but it does not settle all the issues that need to be addressed.”

Snowe, a member of the committee, voted for a rewrite bill that was approved 15 to 7 by the panel on Wednesday. U.S. Rep. Tom Allen serves on the House Commerce Committee that is also working on overhaul legislation.

“I think [Sen. Snowe] has got this just about right,” Allen said. “The Senate bill is better than the House bill.”

He referred specifically to provisions in the senate version of the bill which, unlike the House measure, would dedicate money from the Universal Service Fund to helping bring broadband Internet access to rural parts of the country. The USF, which is financed through fees on telecommunications bills, has been used to assure telephone service to rural areas in the past.

“This is a major provision to help Maine,” Snowe said. “It dedicates $500 million a year to promote the development of broadband in underserved areas. In Maine we have 14 percent of our homes that do not have access to broadband.”

The Senate bill also continues the e-rate program that provides subsidies to schools and libraries for high-speed or broadband access to the Internet. Snowe said that program has benefited Maine and dramatically improved access to the Internet since it was originally passed in 1996.

“I am disappointed Sen. Snowe was not able to get her net neutrality amendment adopted,” Allen said. “It was very similar to one I supported during the House Committee mark up and did not get approved.”

The “net neutrality” debate pits high-speed Internet providers, like phone and cable companies, against technology firms, like Google and Amazon, that create the Internet content and applications. The providers want to be able to charge content producers and decide what content to provide online. The content producers want to continue having open and nondiscriminatory access to the Internet.

Allen said net neutrality is the crucial issue to the overall rewrites of the telecommunications law. He said without specific provisions regulating access to the Internet, he expects the cable and telephone companies will start to charge for preferred treatment of the delivery of messages and access to Web sites. He said that would create an “unacceptable” Internet with the current system turned into one of “the haves and the have nots” with a huge impact on society and business.

“I am not done pushing net neutrality,” Snowe said. “This will be a fundamental debate on the floor of the Senate. This could be pivotal to the whole question of whether we will have a rewrite bill at all.”

She said the issue will be pushed by her and other senators of both parties when the measure is considered by the full Senate later this summer. If the Senate can agree on a measure, Allen said it will be difficult to iron out the differences in a conference committee with the House before this session of Congress ends.

“I suspect we will be back in session in November after the elections to finish action on the appropriations bills we do not pass before the break for the elections,” he said. “If the Senate passes a bill, that’s when I think we will get to a conference.”

Snowe acknowledged there will be much to reconcile, because the House-passed bill is narrowly drafted and basically deals only with the issue of video services and how they are franchised.

The House-passed measure would allow phone companies to offer video services, but without having to seek local franchise agreements like those required of cable TV companies.

“That certainly is an issue we will have to resolve,” Snowe said. “We need to keep the various parties on a level playing field.”

Another section of the Senate bill would help promote wireless Internet access in rural areas by allowing licenses to be offered for smaller areas than the regional licenses now allocated by the Federal Communications Commission. Currently the FCC would license a provider for all of New England and the Senate provision would allow a license for an individual state or smaller geographical area.

The bill would also encourage wireless broadband in rural areas by allowing the FCC to establish procedures to use so called “white spaces” in the frequency spectrum where no licensed facility is operating. The change would open up more frequencies for the use of wireless Internet services.