[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 73 (Tuesday, June 9, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H4245]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        E-RATE/TRUTH IN BILLING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 21, 1997, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, over the course of recent months, I have 
taken to this floor in support of one of the critical elements of the 
1996 Telecommunication Act, which was an agreement that was forged 
between Congress and the telecommunications industry for the benefit of 
our schools and libraries.
  It was decreed that the concept of universal service, which has been 
employed since 1934 to subsidize the cost of extending service to rural 
areas, areas that provide very high costs, would be extended to include 
the Internet access for our schools and libraries through a mechanism 
known as the E-Rate.
  It was determined that the E-Rate would be paid for by the savings 
that would be received by the telecommunication industry as a result of 
deregulation.
  Over the course of this last year and a half, 30,000 schools and 
libraries across America are seeking to capitalize on this provision in 
the agreement. They have put tens of thousands of dollars into 
developing technology plans and applying for the discounts on services 
they need to give America's school kids access to the information 
highway. This is an important opportunity to remedy the fact that 
barely a quarter of America's classrooms have Internet access today.
  Through a mechanism that would provide discounts ranging from 20 to 
80 percent based on the cost of providing service and the poverty level 
in the individual community, this access would be provided.
  Of late we have seen a certain amount of controversy arise 
surrounding the FCC and its handling of the new E-Rate authority. I 
will be the first to admit that there are a host of management and 
universal service issues. There are concerns, perhaps, about the 
mechanism chosen by the previous FCC Chair to pursue application 
approval.

                              {time}  1245

  But as evidenced by the recent surcharges that have been imposed by 
some of the giant telecommunications companies, and the people's 
reaction to them, there is also some controversy over whether adequate 
savings have materialized to cover the E-Rate costs or whether phone 
companies are seeking to recoup costs they have already recovered under 
deregulation.
  I have received and examined information from the FCC that suggests 
that there are already over $2 billion worth of savings that have been 
granted to the telecommunications industry with hundreds of millions of 
dollars more underway; more than enough to offset the proposed $2 
billion that is currently in the pipeline of applications from our 
schools and libraries.
  But my concern, Mr. Speaker, is that we cannot let these 
controversies derail the promise of Internet and the benefits for 
schools that were approved under the act in 1996.
  Mr. Speaker, I am introducing legislation today that would call for a 
General Accounting Office study on the actual savings and give 
consumers some truth in billing. It would show how much money has been 
saved by the telecommunication carriers as a result of these hundreds 
of millions of dollars in reduction. It would show how much has been 
passed back through to the consumers, and how much additional cost 
telecommunications carriers will have to bear, if any, in the 
implementation of the E-Rate.
  In addition, my legislation would require that for those companies 
that seek to add additional line items to their bills, that these line 
items reflect the full and the accurate picture of both savings and 
costs to the carriers as a result of the Federal regulatory actions.
  Similar language has already passed in the United States Senate, a 
part of their antislamming legislation, by a vote of 99-to-nothing.
  The complex arguments surrounding implementation of a complex bill 
are hard for everybody to follow, but it will be lost on the thousands 
of representatives of our communities who are now operating in good 
faith to take advantage of what they understood to be a promise to help 
our schools and libraries.
  We cannot end up holding our kids hostage to an intergovernmental 
dispute. This Congress will end up doing very little for education, the 
number one priority for most Americans. We must ensure that America's 
school kids have access to the information resources they need.

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