[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 173 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 173

 Expressing the sense of the Congress that the Federal Communications 
 Commission should exercise its authority under the Communications Act 
   of 1934 to ensure that unaffiliated service providers have open, 
nondiscriminatory access to broadband facilities that enable access to 
                    the Internet over cable systems.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             August 5, 1999

Mr. Markey (for himself, Mr. Campbell, Mrs. Tauscher, Mr. George Miller 
 of California, Mr. DeFazio, Mr. Stark, Mr. Gejdenson, and Mr. Larson) 
 submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to 
                       the Committee on Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the Congress that the Federal Communications 
 Commission should exercise its authority under the Communications Act 
   of 1934 to ensure that unaffiliated service providers have open, 
nondiscriminatory access to broadband facilities that enable access to 
                    the Internet over cable systems.

Whereas the Internet revolution now occurring affects all telecommunications 
        providers and users and has the promise to drive economic growth into 
        the next millennium;
Whereas the Internet is the focus of an extraordinary amount of entrepreneurial 
        commercial activity because it is a free and open medium that allows 
        businesses, whether large or small, easy access to a global platform for 
        electronic commerce and communication;
Whereas consumer use of the Internet has been spurred by the seemingly limitless 
        amount of information available and by the openness and ease of 
        accessing such information and providing information to others;
Whereas it is precisely this openness that has made the Internet a global 
        platform for innovation, creativity, and economic growth, enabling 
        people in all regions of the United States to participate in electronic 
        commerce at relatively low cost;
Whereas the Congress, in approving the landmark Telecommunications Act of 1996, 
        endorsed in bipartisan fashion a national policy of opening to consumer 
        choice markets that historically operated as monopolies, by choosing 
        competition, rather than monopoly-delivered, regulated services, as the 
        preferred means of promoting consumer choice, creating jobs, and 
        fostering innovation;
Whereas the Telecommunications Act of 1996 anticipated, and further fueled, the 
        growth of converging digital technology and services by treating 
        competitive service offerings on the basis of the services provided, in 
        a technology-neutral way, and without regard to the historical, 
        regulatory antecedents of the provider of that service;
Whereas traditional telecommunications companies, cable operators, and others 
        have begun to upgrade facilities (or build wholly new facilities) in 
        order to bring broadband Internet access to homes and businesses to 
        better compete in the marketplace;
Whereas consumer demand is driving this investment in broadband Internet 
        facilities;
Whereas impediments to competition, innovation, and consumer choice in the 
        provision of telecommunications services retard the deployment of 
        competitive broadband access to the Internet and threaten the expansion 
        of entrepreneurial opportunity and economic growth;
Whereas incipient bottlenecks to competition for broadband access to the 
        Internet provided over cable systems will stifle consumer choice and 
        threaten innovation and expansion of entrepreneurial opportunity and 
        economic growth;
Whereas the continued failure of the Federal Communications Commission 
        appropriately to adopt rules requiring open, nondiscriminatory access to 
        broadband cable networks will lead to the development of unfair 
        competition between two of the wires entering American homes--the cable 
        wire and the phone wire;
Whereas such a regulatory dichotomy plainly disregards the intent of the 
        Congress to rely not on the historical antecedents of the providers of 
        telecommunications services or cable services, or the facilities 
        utilized to deliver a service, but rather on the nature of the service 
        itself in determining its regulatory treatment;
Whereas the failure of the FCC to exercise its appropriate jurisdiction under 
        the Communications Act of 1934 will also force hundreds of local 
        authorities to regulate such services as cable services, undermining the 
        goal of the Congress to create a national framework for the competitive 
        delivery of telecommunications services, and inconsistent with the 
        largely interstate nature of the Internet;
Whereas local authorities insisting upon and ensuring greater competition in 
        their cable franchise areas is highly preferable to a national policy 
        that fails to ensure a competitive, nondiscriminatory environment for 
        broadband access to the Internet;
Whereas attempts to distort an open Internet platform into a more closed system 
        create a discriminatory corporate filter for cyberspace that is also 
        inconsistent with the goals articulated by the Congress in the 
        Telecommunications Act of 1996;
Whereas a departure from the open-architecture roots of the Internet will 
        adversely affect the prospects for electronic commerce for both large 
        and small businesses, for computer hardware and software companies, and 
        for electronic entrepreneurs;
Whereas a departure from the open-architecture roots of the Internet will 
        adversely affect the prospects for education, civic engagement, health 
        care delivery, and more in the digital age; and
Whereas allowing cable operators to offer proprietary and discriminatory access 
        to the Internet only through affiliated Internet service providers 
        deprives consumers of the full benefits of competition: Now, therefore, 
        be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of the Congress that--
            (1) maintaining the Internet as a free and open global 
        platform for electronic commerce is integral to the continued 
        economic growth of the United States, to promoting innovation, 
        and to fostering further entrepreneurial activity;
            (2) the development of discriminatory access to the 
        Internet by telecommunications carriers is an anathema to the 
        telecommunications policy goals of the United States;
            (3) the open infrastructure that currently underlies the 
        Internet should be safeguarded;
            (4) consistent with provisions of the Communications Act of 
        1934, as amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the 
        Federal Communications Commission should, within 180 days after 
        the approval of this resolution, exercise its jurisdiction by 
        completing a proceeding to ensure a competitive, 
        nondiscriminatory environment for broadband access to the 
        Internet over cable systems; and
            (5) the Federal Communications Commission should continue 
        to seek to ensure a competitive, non-discriminatory 
        telecommunications environment that ultimately benefits 
        consumers, creates jobs, and drives economic growth in the 
        United States.
                                 <all>