[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 119 (Wednesday, September 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H9932-H9933]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 1996

  Mr. OXLEY. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill 
(H.R. 3553) to amend the Federal Trade Commission Act to authorize 
appropriations for the Federal Trade Commission.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 3553

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Federal Trade Commission 
     Reauthorization Act of 1996''.

     SEC. 2. REAUTHORIZATION.

       Section 25 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 
     57c) is amended by striking ``and not to exceed'' and 
     inserting ``not to exceed'' and by inserting before the 
     period the following: ``; not to exceed $107,000,000 for 
     fiscal year 1997; and not to exceed $111,000,000 for fiscal 
     year 1998''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Ohio [Mr. Oxley] and the gentleman from New York [Mr. Manton] each will 
control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Oxley].
  (Mr. OXLEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. OXLEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3553, the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1996, is 
a straight 2-year reauthorization of the agency. This legislation, 
cosponsored by my distinguished subcommittee ranking member, Mr. 
Manton, authorizes appropriations of $107 million in fiscal year 1997 
and $111 million in fiscal year 1998 for the operations of the Federal 
Trade Commission. These amounts reflect a current services budget for 
the agency and include no funding for an expansion of activities or 
personnel.
  Mr. Speaker, I have often taken to this floor to defend the modern 
FTC. Shortly before the recess, my subcommittee spent several hours 
with the Federal Trade Commission discussing their performance over the 
past few years and their plans for the future. I am pleased to say that 
under the leadership of FTC Chairman Pitofsky, and former Chairwoman 
Steiger, this agency has come a long way toward rehabilitating its 
tarnished image and I feel justified in coming to its defense. The 
agency today is one which is constantly reviewing old orders, rules, 
and guidance in an effort to eliminate confusing and outdated 
regulations. The agency is about half the size it was during the late 
1970's, but now is effectively reviewing an unprecedented number of 
mergers. In short, this agency is doing more with less, and doing it 
smarter.
  Further, the agency has continued to protect consumers from the 
fraudulent activities of criminals who masquerade as legitimate 
businessmen. For instance, the FTC, working with other Federal, State 
and local law enforcement officials, has spearheaded the effort to 
eliminate telemarketing fraud that the House began when it passed the 
Telemarketing Fraud Act in the 103d Congress. The agency has played an 
instrumental role in a number of sweeps conducted by law enforcement 
officials, including the recent ``Operation Senior Sentinel'' sweep 
which shut down a number of fraudulent telemarketing operations aimed 
at our senior citizens and resulted in numerous arrests across the 
county.
  This agency should serve as a model to other Federal regulatory 
agencies in terms of how to accomplish their fundamental missions in an 
era of dwindling resources. I urge my colleagues to support this agency 
by casting a ``yes'' vote for this simple, straightforward legislation.

                              {time}  1230

  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. MANTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3553, the Federal Trade 
Commission Reauthorization Act of 1996. I was pleased to join the 
chairman of the Commerce, Trade, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee, 
Mr. Oxley, in introducing this legislation and I am equally pleased to 
participate in its passage today on the floor. This is good, bipartisan 
legislation that authorizes funding for the FTC through fiscal year 
1998.
  As one of the country's oldest independent agencies, the FTC fulfills 
an extremely important mission for the American people by protecting 
consumers from unfair or deceptive advertising and marketing practices, 
while also protecting business and industry from unfair methods of 
competition. The Commission has responsibilities under approximately 30 
separate laws, in addition to numerous trade regulations and rules 
governing specific industries and practices. Under the leadership of 
Chairman Pitofsky, and his predecessor, Janet Steiger, the FTC has done 
consistently good work while striving for continuous improvement in its 
operations.
  H.R. 3553 furthers the commitment to the FTC that was demonstrated 
during the 103d Congress with the passage of the Federal Trade 
Commission Amendments of 1994 and the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud 
and Abuse Prevention Act. After a lapse in authorization of 14 years, 
these bills reestablished the important congressional role in 
addressing the responsibilities and authority of the FTC. The process 
of reauthorizing the FTC through this bill before us, afforded another 
opportunity to take a close look at the Commission's activities and 
evaluate its recent performance.
  Over the past few years, the FTC has had significant success through 
enforcement activities directed particularly at telemarketing and 
credit fraud. In the area of telemarketing fraud alone, the FTC has 
brought over 100 enforcement actions against fraudulent business 
operations since the beginning of the year, potentially saving 
consumers many millions of dollars.
  Also noteworthy, in these times of fewer available dollars for 
Federal activities, the Commission has bolstered its enforcement 
resources by teaming with State and other Federal agencies in pursuit 
of its mission. And finally, the Commission's efforts to streamline its 
operations through internal review of its own rules, orders, and 
administrative guidance with the goal of eliminating obsolete measures 
and improved efficiency has been substantial and should be commended.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3553 is a clean reauthorization bill that provides 
sufficient funding to ensure that the FTC has the resources it needs to 
fulfill its mission. I want to thank Chairman Oxley for his efforts in 
bringing this bill to the House floor today and I urge my colleagues to 
support the legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. OXLEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Tauzin].
  Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the bill, and 
congratulate the chairman of the subcommittee for an excellent bill, 
and the ranking minority member for the cooperation that has brought 
this forward.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise mainly to express some concern regarding 
activities that the FTC is now engaged in reviewing and approving the 
Time Warner-Turner broadcast merger proposal. The concern is one that 
is shared by quite a number of people, particularly those living in 
rural areas serviced by small cable companies. The concern has to do 
with the question of whether or not those consumers living in areas, 
particularly rural areas serviced by small cable companies, will have 
access to programming that this Congress has so

[[Page H9933]]

often stated should be available to all Americans.
  The concern is that with this merger, indeed, will Time Warner-Turner 
make available under the program access guidelines that this Congress 
has spoken to in several acts now, the cable bill of 1992, and the most 
recent telecommunications bill of 1996, will in fact those programs be 
made available to small cable companies in those rural areas.
  The concern is one that has been expressed in a letter to Chairman 
Pitofsky authorized by the SCBA, the organization representing those 
small cable companies. It is expressed in a letter to the chairman 
issued by the Small Business Administration, dated August 14, 1996, in 
which the Small Business Administration points out the fact that Time 
Warner's Prime Star, the direct broadcast satellite television system, 
will be in direct competition with those small cable companies in rural 
areas, and the SBA has raised the question of whether or not this new 
combination will in fact act in a way that is in fact anticompetitive 
and will not make programming available to those small cable companies 
that face competition from Prime Star, which is, indeed, owned by this 
new proposed merger.
  The concern has also been expressed on the Senate side in a letter 
that Senator Exon sent to the chairman in which he pointed out that the 
success of competition in video services depends upon program access, 
that if any system, be it a small cable company or a satellite company, 
cannot get the program, that consumers are denied competitive choices.
  We have fought this battle on the floor of the House in 1992 and 
successfully restated, over a Presidential veto, the intention that 
program access is the foundation of competition in this area. We again 
expressed it in the 1996 Telecommunications Act, where program access 
is the foundation to competition and to consumer choice.

  I simply wanted to raise that concern here today with the FTC, and to 
hopefully continue dialoguing on this topic. When consumers have 
choice, when they have program access, to choose from two different 
suppliers, prices, services, competition, all of those things work to 
the benefit of the marketplace. When consumers are denied choice 
because some providers cannot buy the programs, then competition does 
not work, consumers suffer from higher prices and less quality service.
  It is critical, and I hope the FTC pays attention to this notion in 
approving the Time Warner-Turner merger, that that program access be 
maintained so consumers in rural areas serviced by small cable 
companies will continue to have the same kind of choices that other 
Americans have to choose between a satellite distributor or a landline 
cable company for the incredibly desirable cable programming that in 
now important to the American consumer's menu.
  With those concerns expressed, I hope we will continue this dialog. I 
thank the chairman of the subcommittee for the time to express those 
concerns, and hope that in fact the FTC will listen and continue to 
talk to us about them.
  Mr. MANTON. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. OXLEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to commend my friend, the gentleman from 
Louisiana, for his hard work on the program access issue. As many know, 
that was a very hotly debated issue back in 1992 during the cable 
reregulation legislation, and one of the provisions that made the most 
sense in an otherwise rather flawed bill. Clearly, that issue is 
incredibly important to our rural constituents as well. I commend him 
for his consistent work on this for a number of years.
  Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I commend Chairman Oxley and his staff for 
working in an open, bipartisan manner on this legislation. I also want 
to commend our ranking member on the subcommittee, Mr. Manton, for his 
leadership on this and many other important legislative issues.
  The Federal Trade Commission is one of our most important independent 
agencies. Its core statutory duties are twofold: To prevent antitrust 
violations and to protect consumers from deceptive and unfair 
commercial practices. Its mission is vital to protecting the public 
interest.
  During the 103d Congress, our committee worked in a bipartisan 
fashion to enact two important laws involving the FTC. First, we 
enacted a compromise bill that broke the 14-year-old stalemate on FTC 
authorizing legislation. The bill provided a reasonable statutory 
framework, based on previous Commission policy statements, for 
determining whether acts or practices are unfair. The bill also beefed 
up the Commission's enforcement authorities in several important 
respects. Since enactment of this landmark legislation, the Commission 
has been able to choose among a broad spectrum of enforcement options 
against those who violate the FTC Act or Commission rules.
  Second, the 103d Congress enacted a telemarketing bill that provides 
new tools for the FTC and State law enforcement agencies to crack down 
on those who use a telephone to cheat, swindle, and defraud consumers. 
The FTC, working closely with State attorneys general, consumer 
organizations, and other interested parties, has successfully 
prosecuted multiple telemarketing fraud cases since enactment of the 
1993 legislation. The regulations promulgated by the Commission early 
this year provide additional protection for consumers in this important 
area.
  The record clearly indicates the FTC is performing its mission with 
improved efficiency and effectiveness. Through efforts initiated during 
Janet Steiger's tenure as Chairman and continued under Chairman 
Pitofsky's leadership, the FTC has embarked on a program of responsible 
regulatory reform. It has repealed unnecessary regulations and updated 
other regulations where appropriate. Those who advocate responsible 
regulatory reform would be well advised to look at the FTC's method of 
streamlining and improving regulation. The FTC's efforts contrast 
sharply with the ill-advised, blunderbuss approach taken in several 
legislative initiatives Republicans have pursued during this Congress.
  The agency also is doing more with less. Although it has roughly half 
the staff it had in 1980, it continues to perform its core statutory 
duties effectively. But, as former Chairman Janet Steiger said in her 
testimony before the subcommittee,

       Any further significant decline in the FTC's staffing 
     imperils the performance of its main mission.

  The modest funding levels in the Oxley-Manton bill are well justified 
when considering the revenues returned to the Treasury from FTC merger 
fees and enforcement actions and the benefits the agency produces for 
consumers and the economy.
  I am pleased that the Commerce Committee chose to authorize the FTC 
on a bipartisan basis and to ignore hastily drafted provisions in the 
House budget resolution that recommended the elimination of the agency. 
I also note that an identical authorization bill has been reported by 
our sister committee and is pending in the other body.
  I commend Chairman Oxley and Mr. Manton. Their bipartisan leadership 
during the last Congress was critical to enactment of the first FTC 
authorization bill in more than a decade. The bill before us builds on 
that progress. I urge all Members to support this legislation.


                             general leave

  Mr. OXLEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks 
on H.R. 3553.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Ohio?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. OXLEY. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Wicker). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Oxley] that the House suspend 
the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3553.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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