[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 72 (Friday, June 5, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1045-E1046]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            KEEP THE GOVERNMENT OUT OF THE SOFTWARE INDUSTRY

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. TOM DeLAY

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, June 5, 1998

  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, until recently, the computer services 
industry, an engine of economic growth and job creation in the United 
States, has remained unbridled by the government. But that all changed 
when the Clinton Justice Department decided that Microsoft--a company 
whose innovations have made the personal computer the modern personal 
productivity tool--that Microsoft is harmful to the U.S. economy and 
must therefore be regulated.
  The computer software industry has doubled its number of employees in 
the last eight

[[Page E1046]]

years. It is growing at 2\1/2\ times the rate of the U.S. economy. And 
it consistently delivers consumers more innovative products at lower 
prices. But despite these facts, the U.S. Department of Justice insists 
that the industry is not competitive. Instead, the DOJ suggests that 
Microsoft, a company at the center of all that job creation and 
economic growth, should be regulated. That's right. The problem with 
the computer services industry, insists the Clinton Justice department, 
is that the government needs to be more involved. Isn't this the 
president who told us the era of big government is over? When 
government starts defining for our nation's fastest growing industry 
which innovations will be legal, which will be illegal, what can be 
given away for free and what cannot--well, I say that that is the 
definition of big government.
  Mr. Speaker, every industry the government has ever tried to manage 
has suffered because of it. The free market works. And I defy any 
member to name just one industry--just one--that has generated as much 
economic growth and good-paying jobs as the computer services industry 
has, that was improved when government lawyers decided to regulate it.
  Apparently the American people understand this better than the 
Justice Department. They understand that the way to ensure competition 
is to let consumers and the market decide, not government regulators. 
They understand that Microsoft is an agent of economic growth, not an 
obstacle to it. And the American people understand that Microsoft's 
success has helped establish the U.S. as the worldwide leader in the 
computer and software industries.
  I, for one, do not believe we should sacrifice this world leadership 
on the altar of government regulation just because the Clinton Justice 
Department thinks consumers are incapable of making intelligent market 
choices.
  Computers and software are big markets, and each new technological 
innovation opens up vast economic opportunities for the companies that 
have the wisdom and creativity to take advantage of them. The market 
does not guarantee equal outcomes, and the government should not come 
to the aid of businesses that didn't make smart choices.
  The Department of Justice should take that to heart. And the software 
companies supporting the DOJ's suit against Microsoft should consider 
the chilling prospect that tomorrow it could very well be they who the 
government next decides to regulate.
  The bottom line is that most software companies would gladly trade 
places with Microsoft. It's a great company that has been innovative, 
improved its products, been aggressive, and reaped the rewards of 
market success. The place for companies to compete with Microsoft, 
however, is in the marketplace, where consumers will let the 
competitors know whose products they like and what innovations they 
want to see.
  But for the government to choose sides in a highly competitive 
industry is not only unfair, it's not necessary. If Microsoft is to 
fail, it should be because it failed to innovate, not because its 
innovations were outlawed by the Clinton Justice Department.

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