[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 78 (Tuesday, June 16, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H4575]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                E-RATE IS TAX ON AMERICANS' PHONE BILLS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 21, 1997, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Scarborough) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCARBOROUGH. Mr. Speaker, earlier this hour a friend of mine came 
to the floor and was talking about his support for the E-Rate system, 
the E-Rate tax. He was also talking about confusion surrounding that 
program.
  While I certainly respect the gentleman's opinions and understand his 
viewpoints, I have got to tell my colleagues there should not be a 
whole lot of confusion surrounding the E-Rate tax, or the Gore tax as 
it is more commonly called. If there is, it is because there was a 
backroom deal between Vice President Gore and a bureaucrat for the FCC.
  Mr. Speaker, there should not be confusion, but there may be because 
of the tax increase on the phone bill of all Americans which was passed 
on to them secretly by the Vice President and bureaucrats and not by 
elected officials in this Chamber.
  It certainly violates all notions of fair play and constitutional 
limits that are passed on the Federal Government. There may be 
confusion because the FCC used heavy-handed tactics to try and stop 
phone companies from telling their consumers that a 5 percent tax had 
been passed on to every one of their phone bills secretly. Certainly, 
that does add confusion.
  Now, what the Gore tax does is through the telecommunications bill it 
misinterprets, or interprets very loosely, a provision that they 
believe allows the FCC to demand that telecommunication companies 
increase taxes on phone bills by 5 percent and then passes that money 
on to a new Federal bureaucracy program.
  We have heard, and we will hear throughout this debate, that this tax 
is about the children. That it is about helping the children. And since 
I have been in Washington, D.C., I have found that there is not much 
that we pass on this floor that somebody does not say is about helping 
the children. Children, children, children. That is all we hear about.
  Well, I say if this tax increase on every American's phone bill is so 
important for the children, then why do we not invite the Vice 
President and our tax-and-spend friends on the left to come down to 
this Chamber and debate, fairly and openly for all Americans to see, 
the issues involved here?
  America is not about passing tax increases on to all Americans 
through a bureaucracy, or for an administration official to decide 
that, gee, this is a really good program, let us tax all Americans and 
not tell them about it.
  What America is supposed to be about, what this Chamber, the People's 
House, is supposed to be about, the epicenter of freedom and democracy 
across the world, it is supposed to be about a fair and free, open 
debate.
  Over 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson was talking about the promise 
and the dream of America and what would make the American Republic. 
What Thomas Jefferson talked about was the fair marketplace of ideas 
and the free marketplace of ideas where Americans from all sides of an 
issue could come together and debate the issues that affected 
Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, regrettably, this tax increase on the phone bill of all 
Americans has not been done openly in this Chamber, but rather has been 
done in the backrooms of the White House and in bureaucracies across 
Washington, D.C. When the telephone companies went to the bureaucrats 
and said we are going to start telling our consumers about this 5 
percent tax that has been passed on to them, they met resistance. The 
bureaucrats said, ``You cannot do that.'' And so now they are debating 
that issue back and forth.
  Because of this reason, because of the backroom deals, today I have 
introduced a bill called the ``E-Rate Tax Moratorium Act of 1998.'' It 
is going to do a few simple things. The first thing it is going to do 
is it is going to stop the bureaucrats at the FCC from demanding that 
phone companies tax Americans.
  The second thing it is going to do is it is going to stop the FCC 
from demanding that the telecommunications companies participate in the 
future in paying more money into this new bureaucracy. It does not 
destroy this bureaucracy that supposedly is supposed to help children. 
It does not stop the head of this new bureaucracy from talking $200,000 
a year, not that that is something that we would not necessarily like 
to do away with.

                              {time}  1315

  But, instead, it puts a moratorium on it, and it says wait a second, 
you all passed this in a manner that the GAO said was illegal. You 
broke laws. You hiked taxes on every single American with a telephone 
without doing it in a fair and open democratic debate. Let us just put 
a freeze on it and take up the issue later.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join in a moratorium on the Gore 
tax.

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