[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 4, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S27-S28]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




PASSAGE OF A PROCOMPETITIVE, DEREGULATORY TELECOMMUNICATIONS BILL, THE 
      TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPETITION AND DEREGULATION ACT OF 1995

  Mr. PRESSLER. Mr. President, I think one of the major duties of the 
new Congress will be to pass a major telecommunications reform bill--a 
new procompetitive, deregulatory bill. I know there are many views in 
this body on national telecommunications policy. The Republican 
controlled 104th Congress has a truly historic opportunity to pass 
comprehensive telecommunications reform legislation.
  Last year, the Congress almost passed a bill. The House of 
Representatives passed a bill by an overwhelming vote. The Senate 
Commerce Committee passed out a bill 18 to 2 that became entangled here 
on the Senate floor.
  Why should we pass a telecommunications bill in 1995? The reason is 
that the country needs a roadmap for the next century in 
telecommunications as we continue to move forward in the Information 
Age. We need to have more competition and more deregulation. Past 
efforts to craft telecommunications legislation have been bogged down 
by overly regulatory approaches. A fresh look at the issues, grounded 
in procompetitive, deregulatory principles, is the best way to meet our 
common policy objectives.
  We need to have all telecommunications markets open to competition. 
We need to have the cable companies competing in the telephone business 
and telephone companies providing cable television service. We need to 
have the long-distance companies competing in local telephone markets, 
and vice versa. We no longer should have this regulatory apartheid 
scheme of having little patches or enclaves of competition for only one 
group of people or companies.
  Telecommunications policy in America, under the 1934 Communications 
Act, has long been based on the now faulty premise that information 
transmitted over wires could easily be distinguished from information 
transmitted over the air. Different regulatory regimes were erected 
around different information media. That is what I refer to as the 
regulatory apartheid scheme.
  This is an extremely complex and difficult area. It is easier said 
than done. The telecommunications field is a unique area of regulation 
in that one frequently has to use someone else's coaxial cable to get 
to a home or someone else's fiber optic cable or someone else's copper 
cable or copper wire to get one's product delivered. Nonetheless, I am 
quite confident we can work out many of those problems through the 
development of opening requirements in terms of unbundling, in terms of 
interconnection, in terms of number portability, in terms of resale and 
so forth.
  It is my strongest personal conviction that one of the great 
accomplishments, on a bipartisan basis, of this 104th Congress will be 
the passage of a new major telecommunications reform bill.
  I have been meeting and speaking with numerous CEO's from around the 
country in the telecommunications and information technology 
industries. I am meeting with consumers. I am talking with my fellow 
Republican and Democratic colleagues, both in the House and the Senate. 
I have spoken on a number of occasions with Vice President Gore about 
this most important topic. We must work together on a bipartisan basis 
to achieve this laudable goal.
  Much of the recent discussion around the country has been about the 
Contract With America and some of the partisanship that might surround 
that debate. I think the contract is a very healthy thing and I will 
vote for it. But we will also have a substantial piece of substantive 
legislation in the Commerce Committee this year--a new procompetitive, 
deregulatory telecommunications bill--the Telecommunications 
Competition and Deregulation Act of 1995. As the incoming chairman of 
the Senate Commerce Committee this year I have announced that this will 
be the Commerce Committee's top priority. I ask my colleagues to look 
at some of the materials we will send to your offices on this bill. It 
is very important that we reach consensus on this critically important 
issue and pass a new telecommunications bill.
  My new telecommunications bill will rapidly accelerate private sector 
deployment of advanced telecommunications and information technologies 
and services to all Americans by open- 
[[Page S28]] ing all telecommunications markets to competition. It will 
markedly improve international competitiveness, spur economic growth, 
job creation and productivity gains, delivery better quality of life 
through more efficient delivery of educational, health care and other 
social services, and enhance individual empowerment. All without 
spending taxpayer money.
  Mr. President, I thank the Chair and I yield the floor. I note the 
absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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