[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 11 (Thursday, February 12, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H489]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pitts). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, it has been 2 years since we passed the 
Telecommunications Act of 1996. When we passed that act, we were all 
very encouraged that our communities would enjoy local telephone 
service that had not been available in the past at a competitive rate. 
Those of us from rural communities were particularly hopeful about the 
prospect of such service.
  Unfortunately, I have yet to see one of those companies that lobbied 
us in any of the counties I represent in rural North Carolina. Instead, 
they have set up shops in Charlotte and in the Research Triangle 
serving big business and large corporations. That is not what Congress 
intended. So it may be time to encourage regulators to help bring down 
the barriers to competition and all markets, including rural 
communities. At the same time, I want to invite companies interested in 
offering local services at affordable rates to come on down to eastern 
North Carolina and offer my constituents a choice. We are waiting for 
them.
  Mr. Speaker, another issue I just want to raise is the issue indeed 
of the Afro-American farmer. We are now talking about Afro-American 
History Month, and this is the time not only to cite progress and to 
cite renewed hope for the future, but also to cite some of the 
opportunities we have to make corrections.
  The black farmers known in North Carolina and known throughout the 
South have been suffering for many reasons. But one of the reasons they 
have been suffering is not to have access to capital, not to have 
opportunities to the resources of USDA in an nondiscriminatory manner. 
This issue has been highlighted recently because a number of farmers 
had really had foreclosures on their homes and a number of them have 
been in a struggle with their government to make sure they treat them 
fairly for the last 20 or 25 years. And yet, our government has not 
found an opportunity not only to address the agreed and admitted 
discrimination but not to make them whole, not to make sure that they 
get their land back, which was taken indiscriminately and they should 
make sure that the remedy they fashion and offer to black farmers are 
not empty gestures where there is no opportunity to make them whole 
where they can farm again and have a quality of life, which indeed all 
Americans want.
  So I want to urge my colleagues, as they reflect with me on Black 
History Month, they also reflect on the small black farmer, which has 
been an intimate part of our struggle and our development in feeding 
our country. They simply want to farm. They simply want to have the 
opportunity as any other farmer to have the resources, have the 
technical assistance, to have the programs offered to other farmers 
offered to them.
  There may come a time when this Congress has to step in and make 
those corrections to make sure our country lives up to the code and 
make sure that all farmers, all Americans, have the same equal right 
access to capital, access to American programs, and to make sure that 
our country honors, honors, their commitment, when they make a 
commitment they will not discriminate, and if they are found to be 
discriminatory, there will be a remedy that will be a remedy fashioned 
according to the damage done to them.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to consider that as they reflect.

                          ____________________