[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 78 (Tuesday, June 16, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H4619-H4626]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROTECT THE E-RATE FOR AMERICA'S CHILDREN
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) is recognized
for 60 minutes.
Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, there is an emergency in America right now,
and it affects the students in school. It affects the students who go
to use our libraries.
I would like to announce that it is only 7:10 Eastern Standard Time,
and I hope that there are kids in America listening, because this is
their fight and they ought to rally to defend their own interests, the
E-Rate. The E-Rate belongs to the kids of America.
What is the E-Rate? The E-Rate is a discount that is given through a
universal service fund to schools and libraries in order to enable
those schools and libraries to wire their computers to the Internet, to
hook up to the Internet.
Then the E-Rate also continues to provide a discount on the ongoing
telecommunication services utilized by the schools. The E-Rate is the
greatest thing that has happened to schools in a long, long time.
The E-Rate is the result of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. The
Telecommunications Act of 1996 gave the big corporations in
broadcasting and telecommunications almost everything they asked for.
The one concession they made is that they would provide discounted
rates for schools and libraries.
By the way, this is all schools, parochial schools, private schools,
all schools are eligible for the utilization of this E-Rate, the
discount from the universal fund. Libraries, all libraries, all public
libraries are eligible for it.
So we have started that. There was $2.25 billion made available or
projected as the first year's expenditure. And 30,000 schools and
libraries have applied already. They have met the qualifications. They
have gone through the application process, and they are waiting for
their funding from the E-Rate.
We have a great reduction in the E-Rate. So kids of America, they
have some monsters out here. They have some monsters out here who have
stolen or who are attempting to steal the E-Rate away from the children
of America.
MCI wants the E-Rate to die. AT&T. And there are a lot of misguided
Members of Congress who want the E-Rate to die. These big corporations
and big powerful people elect are like the Grinch that stole Christmas.
Only this time the Grinch is going to steal E-Rate.
They are like the Giant that chased little Jack. They are powerful,
overwhelming, abusive. They have all the power. But Jack outwitted the
Giant. That means that the children of America can fight back. This is
a democracy and their parents vote. I hope they are listening and they
tell their parents to listen, that the E-Rate deserves to live.
We are dealing with something like the Big Bad Wolf that was in
Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother's bed. Little Red Riding Hood
outwitted the Wolf. The Wolf in the end was destroyed, not Little Red
Riding Hood.
We are dealing with something like Yertle the Turtle. There are
people that are very powerful. There are corporations that are very
greedy.
AT&T has been around a long time. They have made billions of dollars.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 would enable AT&T to make more
money. MCI can make more money. Tremendous amounts of additional profit
will accrue to these corporations as a result of the Telecommunications
Act of 1996. But they want more. They want more. They are like Yertle
the Turtle.
I think I remember Yertle the Turtle correctly. I read it to my kids
a long time. I have a grandson, and I have got to get ready with all of
these stories and get familiar with them. Green Eggs and Ham is my
favorite, but Yertle the Turtle also was a favorite Dr. Seuss story.
If you recall, Yertle is not the hero. Yertle the Turtle is not the
hero. Yertle is the villain. Yertle is the turtle who wanted to be the
tallest turtle in the world. He wanted to be higher than everybody
else. He kept forcing other turtles to get under him so he could get
higher and higher and higher. Yertle was not the hero.
There was a little turtle on the bottom of him named Mac.
{time} 1915
And Mack said, I'm tired of bearing all the weight of all these
turtles on top of me. So Mack decided to squeeze out of the line, and
the whole pile of turtles came tumbling down.
Kids of America do not have to take this bullying by AT&T or MCI or
the chairmen of the powerful congressional committees. Kids of America
can rebel. They can fight back. Kids of America should stay awake,
listen, they should talk to their parents. They need to know more about
the E-Rate. They need to know more about the attempt of the Grinch to
steel the E-Rate from the kids of America.
[[Page H4620]]
Let me give everyone the background on what the E-Rate is all about.
Last week I talked about leadership, and our leadership can determine
the fate of a country and the fate of a nation, whether it is a small
nation or a superpower. Last week I talked about Israel and how great
the leadership of Israel has been to date; how Israel's leadership has
brought it to the point in 50 years where it has achieved more than
many countries have achieved in 200 or 300 years. Leadership.
I also gave an example of leadership in the Soviet Union; how
leadership in the Soviet Union was able to produce a space station,
rockets, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and it was a superpower.
But the leadership was so ingrained and so enclosed that they did not
listen to the outside world with respect to democracy. They did not
listen to new thought coming in, so they focused in on themselves and
destroyed the economy of the country. They destroyed the spirit of the
country. So a superpower went out of existence in our time. A giant
superpower collapsed and failed.
It is possible the giant superpower called the United States of
America also is vulnerable if we do not have the right policies. If we
bully little children, if we bully students in school. And that is what
we have. We have the giant corporations teaming up with some powerful
people in Congress and they are bullying the FCC and forcing the FCC to
take away a benefit that is very much needed, an opportunity that is
very much needed by most of the children in America. Certainly the low-
income children of America have no chance, ever, of being in schools
with computers hooked up to the internet that can pay the price of
ongoing telecommunication services if we do not have this universal
service fund, called the E-Rate for short.
Let me give everyone the background. There is an article that
appeared in the Congressional Quarterly June 13th, and it summarizes it
very well. And, Mr. Speaker, I will place the entire article, entitled
``The FCC Votes to Shrink Internet Subsidies Program; Two Bills Would
Shift Cost'' in the June 13th issue of the Congressional Quarterly, in
its entirety, in the Record. So it will be, in its entirety, in the
Record. Everyone can pull it off the internet, by the way, but I am
going to read it in part to let everyone clearly understand what this
is all about. This is a terrible injustice to the children of America,
and I think once everyone hears the story, they will agree with me. The
article is as follows:
[From Congressional Quarterly, June 13, 1998]
FCC Votes To Shrink Internet Subsidies Program; Two Bills Would Shift
Costs
(By Juliana Gruenwald)
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted June 12
to scale back a controversial program that provides discounts
for Internet hookups to schools, libraries and rural health
care centers.
The FCC, in a 3-2 vote, agreed to provide $700 million for
the second half of the year, bringing the total for the year
to $1.375 billion, a cut of nearly 50 percent from the FCC's
original plan.
The action comes in the wake of pressure from Capitol Hill
over how the FCC is running the program. Critics are angry
that consumers are being forced to shoulder the cost of the
Internet service.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Commerce,
Science and Transportation Committee, said the FCC's changes
were ``an exercise in futility'' and said legislation must be
enacted to stabilize the program.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., said June 8 he would
try to move legislation to block the FCC program in the next
few weeks.
Rep. W.J. ``Billy'' Tauzin, R-La., and Sen. Conrad Burns,
R-Mont., have said that, to pay for the Internet subsidies,
they plan to introduce bills to shift revenue from the
current 3 percent excise tax on telephone service.
The program was created by Congress in the 1996
telecommunications law (PL 104-104) when it expanded
universal service, a system in place for years to provide
subsidies for phone service to low income residents and high-
cost areas. (1996 Almanac, p. 3-43)
Universal service is paid for by telecommunications
companies, which pass the charges along to consumers. About
$675 million has been collected for the Internet program,
which has yet to dispense any subsidies.
Some lawmakers say the FCC made the program so big it has
led to an increase in long-distance rates.
The program appeared in jeopardy after the top leaders of
the House and Senate Commerce committees called on the FCC on
June 4 to stop collecting funding for the program and revamp
the universal service rules. (CQ Weekly, p. 1539)
The move followed an announcement by some long-distance
companies that they would impose a new surcharge on
residential customers' bills to pay for their universal
service costs.
The issue came to a head June 10 when all five
commissioners appeared at the Senate hearing.
Several senators said they feared the Internet program
could put support for traditional universal service at risk.
Some GOP members also complained that the program was only
intended to provide discounts for Internet services, not to
help pay for inside wiring. About $1.3 billion of the $2.02
billion requested in the 30,000 applications from schools in
libraries was to pay for inside wiring.
But the program's defenders said the program had been
unfairly maligned by those who are out to kill it and urged
the commissioners to do what was necessary to keep it intact.
``Don't allow this covert operation to derail this
initiative,'' said Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, one of the
initiative's sponsors.
Carol Henderson, executive director for the American
Library Association's Washington Office, said it has
partially become a ``partisan political issue, and that's
unfortunate . . . particularly if those who suffer for that
are libraries and schools.''
Some Republicans call the program the ``Gore tax'' because
Vice President Al Gore supports the program expanding
Internet access to children.
Regardless of the controversy, Linda Smith, director of
technology for San Bernardino city schools in California,
said she hopes policy-makers will keep their commitment to
help needy school districts.
Most of the 46,000 students in her district--77 percent of
whom get free or reduced school lunches--do not ``have
computers at home or access to the Net,'' she said.
Mr. Speaker, I am quoting from the article as it appeared on June 13
in the Congressional Quarterly.
The Federal Communications Commission, FCC, voted June 12th
to scale back a controversial program that provides discounts
for internet hookups to schools, libraries and rural health
care centers. The FCC, in a 3-to-2 vote, agreed to provide
$700 million for the second half of the year, bringing the
total for the year to $1.375 billion, a cut of nearly 50
percent from the FCC's original plan.
They promised the children of America one figure and they are cutting
the amount in half. Why? There is no good reason. They are saying it is
too expensive. Why is it too expensive for the children of America to
receive a tiny portion of the huge revenues that are pulled in by the
communications companies? They say, no, and the FCC has made these
cuts.
I want to make it clear at this point that I am not criticizing the
FCC. The FCC has been bullied and pushed and forced into a position by
overwhelming forces that have converged on the FCC. Since the E-Rate
was established and the procedures were set up by the FCC, there has
been a bullying by corporations. Some corporations have chosen to go to
court and sue the FCC in an attempt to take away the E-Rate from the
children of America.
Some corporations have been doing that, so that puts pressure on the
FCC. And then we have the heads of some of the committees in Congress
writing to the chairman of the FCC committee, in a very vicious and
unusual way. Unprecedented. The chairmen of committees, who, by the
way, do not have the authority to give orders directly to the various
agencies of the Federal Government. They do not have that authority.
But they were so brutal in their attack that they frightened the FCC
commissioners. And they are attempting to try to compromise in order to
save some part of the E-Rate for the children of America.
So the FCC is our hero at this point. The chairman of the FCC and the
people who voted to at least keep half, they really are heroes for
arriving at a point where, for the time being, they have offered a
compromise.
I am here tonight to call upon the children of America, the kids of
America, to not accept the compromise. We do not want half. We need the
full $2.25 billion that was budgeted in the first place.
Let me continued with the article.
The action comes in the wake of pressure from Capitol Hill
over how the FCC is running the program. Critics are angry
that consumers are being forced to shoulder the cost of the
internet service. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona,
chairman of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Committee, said the FCC's changes were ``an exercise in
futility'' and said legislation must be enacted to stabilize
the program.
I do not know what he means by exercise in futility. What he is
saying is,
[[Page H4621]]
if we cut it in half, we have taken away half of the funds from the
children of America. That is not enough. That is an exercise in
futility. We are going to destroy the whole program.
It strikes me as very strange that this program for children, through
schools and libraries, is arousing such intense reaction from powerful
people. Corporations first, AT&T, MCI, and now certain powerful people
in Congress want to destroy the program.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Republican from Georgia, said
June 8th he would try to move legislation to block the FCC
program in the next few weeks.
To block the FCC program. That is destruction. To smother it; to
strangle it. Now, what have the kids of America done to deserve a
program like this being strangled? Why is the big bad wolf and the
Grinch and the giant and Yertle, all of them, gathering together to
destroy a program that will provide opportunity for the children of
America?
Representative W. J. Billy Tauzin, Republican of Louisiana,
and Senator Conrad Burns, Republican of Montana, have said
that to pay for the internet subsidies, they plan to
introduce bills to shift revenue from the current 3 percent
excise tax on telephone service.
Now, that sounds like, well, these guys are constructive and somebody
is coming up with an alternative. When we start talking about taxes and
shifting taxes, I assure everyone, children of America who are
listening, after all, it is still early, I hope they are up, I assure
everyone that any attempt to shift taxes or to play with taxes will not
fair very well here on the floor. It will not get through.
They are just going to use this as a smoke screen to pretend that
they care about the kids of America; they care about their opportunity
and their future to be able to really learn the kind of basic knowledge
of computers and use of the internet that is going to be required when
they get to the point where they are graduating from high school or
they are going out there to get one of these jobs, the big jobs of the
future, the important jobs, the jobs that are going to be available,
that we know for certain are jobs relating to information technology.
Information technology jobs are the ones that will be available. If
kids do not get prepared in school, they will be able to qualify for
those jobs.
Low-income students in the big cities of America, students in rural
areas are already way behind. Most of our suburban schools, a lot of
schools in affluent communities, they are already wired to the
internet. They already have computer labs and computer programs which
are fully educating their children on the benefits of how to use
computers and learning how to use computers in the applications for the
future.
To go back to the article, I quote again,
The program was created by Congress in the 1996
telecommunications law, Public Law 104-104, when it expanded
universal service, a system in place for years to provide
subsidies for phone service to low-income residents and high
cost areas.
Let me just quote that again. I am quoting from an article from the
Congressional Quarterly. They said the program that we are talking
about now, the E-Rate, the universal fund expansion to include
discounts to libraries and schools was added to another fund in 1996,
in the 1996 telecommunications law, when it expanded universal service.
Universal service existed already. They are making it appear they never
had anything like this, but there is a universal service that existed
already, and that service provides service to low-income residents and
high cost areas.
Universal service is paid for by telecommunications companies and
they pass the charges along to consumers. Is it a large charge? We have
been receiving an extra charge for years. For years we have never known
it even existed. Most people did not know there was a universal service
and that a slight amount of money was taxed on to the phone bill to pay
for that service that already existed.
But now that it is there for children, it is there to provide wiring
to the internet and ongoing telecommunications services on the
internet, it has suddenly become a big issue and corporations want to
go to war against the children of America.
About $675 million has been collected for the internet program to
date, which has yet to dispense any subsidies. They have not spent a
penny yet. We have been getting ready since last fall. Applications
originally were supposed to be submitted last fall. They moved it back
to January. We started submitting applications in January. Remember,
those who were part of those 30,000 schools that have submitted? It was
done mostly over the internet. Most of the submissions were done over
the internet. They could do it some other way, in print, but they
encouraged everybody to do it over the internet. And those applications
were complicated. The process was complicated.
And now that they have it all in, and not a penny has been spent yet,
before the program can even start, the bullies, the giants, the
grinches, the big bad wolves, the Yertles, the turtles, they have come
along and stolen half of it and they want the rest. Kids of America
better rise up and fight this.
Some lawmakers say the FCC made the program so big it has
lead to an increase in long-distance rates. The program
appeared in jeopardy after the top leaders of the House and
Senate commerce committees called on the FCC on June 4 to
stop collecting funding for the program and revamp the
universal service rules. The move followed an announcement by
some long-distance companies,
the move followed an announcement by some long-distance companies,
that they would impose a new surcharge on residential
customers' bills to pay for their universal service cost.
Here is where was set in motion the process which has now led to an
attempt to steal the E-Rate from the kids of America.
The move followed an announcement by some long distance
companies that they would impose a new surcharge on
residential customers' bills to pay for their universal
service cost. The issue came to a head June 10th, when all
five commissioners appeared at the Senate hearing. Several
Senators said they feared the internet program could put
support for traditional universal service at risk. Some GOP
members also complained that the program was only intended to
provide discounts for internet services, not to help pay for
inside waring. About $1.3 billion of the $2.2 billion
requested in the 30,000 applications from schools and
libraries was to pay for inside wiring.
{time} 1930
I am reading from Congressional Quarterly's summary of the attempt to
steal the Internet from the kids of America. They are making an issue
out of the fact that some of the money goes to help wire the school to
provide basic wiring to hook computers up to the net. They do not use
the money to buy computers. They do not use the money to pay for
teachers or technical assistants. They do not use the means to pay
personnel to wire the schools necessarily, but the wiring costs and
some basic costs that enables the schools that are poorest to get into
the game.
The biggest amount of the money and the money that will be spent on
an ongoing basis will be for the actual telecommunications services on
an ongoing basis month after month after month. Some schools will get a
discount as high as 90 percent. In the poorest schools in my district,
it means that for every dollar that the schools spend on a monthly
basis for telecommunications services, they would only have to pay 10
cents. They can get as high as that. The poorest districts of America
could get a 90 percent discount.
What are the poorest districts? They measure them by the districts
that have the largest amount of children who are eligible for the free
school lunch program. The school lunch program, in order to be a part
of it, they have to submit from their parents and their home, they have
to submit proof of their income status.
There are some schools in my district where 95 percent of the
children are eligible for the school lunch program, which means that
that school certainly is eligible for the biggest discount. So at one
end they may have some suburban schools, affluent neighborhoods, they
get a 15 percent discount.
Some people complain about they should not get anything. I think the
program should be for every school district, for every school, for
every library. I do not think it should be cut off for some and only
available to the poorest. I think there should be some funds available
for every school.
I do not think $2.2 billion that has been requested by the 30,000
schools and libraries is too much when we consider the billions of
dollars being
[[Page H4622]]
earned by the big telecommunications companies.
I am quoting again from the Congressional Quarterly article. ``But
the program's defenders said the program had been unfairly maligned by
those who are out to kill it and urge the commissioners to do what was
necessary to keep it intact. Don't allow this covert operation to
derail this initiative,'' said Senator Olympia J. Snow, Republican of
Maine, one of the initiative's sponsors.
Karen Henderson, the executive director for the American Libraries
Association's Washington office, said, ``It has partially become a
partisan political issue.'' And that is unfortunate, particularly if
those who suffer for that are libraries and schools.
Why are the Republicans making this a partisan issue? Do Republicans
not care about education in America? Do they not want the children of
America who are in school today to be prepared to meet the
qualifications for the information technology jobs of tomorrow? Why are
the Republicans against providing universal, across-the-board service
which would allow all schools and libraries to become part of a process
of utilizing information technology starting with computers?
They are making it a big partisan issue. Remember the Republicans, 2
years ago they tried to steal part of school lunches from children,
they wanted to cut the school lunch program two years ago? At that time
I called on the kids of America and their parents to wake up. Kids of
America, there is a fiscal crunch. This great Nation now needs your
lunch. I wrote a little appeal to the kids to understand what they are
saying. The Republicans say there is a fiscal crunch. The Nation needs
your lunch. I was absurd, ridiculous of course. $2 billion will be
saved by cutting back on school lunches.
The kids of America and their parents, everybody out there with
common sense, rose up in horror. How can the Republicans take lunches
from little kids? How can they take lunches from students at school?
And the horror became evident in the public opinion polls and in the
focus groups, so that the Republicans in 1996 retreated.
They gave up not only their great cuts in school lunch program, they
gave up many other education cuts, understanding that common sense in
America says that education ought to be one of the first priorities in
the Federal Government. Education should be one of the first
priorities.
They tried to politicize education. They called for the complete
elimination of the Department of Education. They were going to cut
Headstart. They were going to cut title I. The budget that they
presented in 1995 in many ways resembles the budget that they presented
in 1998. Again, they are calling for elimination of title I. They are
going to convert title I to vouchers.
Again, they refuse to deal with the overwhelming problem of school
construction that we need help in constructing more classrooms. In
order to bring down class size we need to do two things. We need to
construct more classrooms as well as provide some money for more
teachers.
But the Republican budget that has just been released, they do not
have anything in there for school construction, for reduction of class
sizes. They want to cut title I and turn it into a voucher program.
They want to politicize something as great as this universal service
funds for schools and libraries. It now is going to become a political
football. The next paragraph in that article describes part of that
process.
A quote from the Congressional Quarterly article. ``Some Republicans
call the program the Gore tax because Vice President Al Gore supports
the program expanding Internet access to children.'' ``Some Republicans
call the program the Gore tax because Vice President Al Gore supports
the program expanding Internet access to children.''
What a pity that this becomes a political football. Vice President Al
Gore should be lauded and applauded for the way they have provided
leadership. This is leadership and vision that has been provided and
leading the way for schools to get involved in their educational
programs with the kind of process educating children for information
technology jobs that exist tomorrow. That process will not happen
automatically. Schools have lots of problems.
Only the vision of Vice President Gore and of President Clinton has
opened this whole process. We made a breakthrough. The President stood
here 2 years ago and called for the wiring of all the schools of
America through a volunteer process. The President himself, in
California, helped initiate the first volunteer wiring of the schools.
They go out on a Saturday and they get volunteers and they wire a
school.
They even set up a national process where there is a kit to wire a
school we could purchase between $500 and $600. Because they purchased
the equipment and wires, everything was purchased in large quantities,
so they are able to supply the kit at the very lowest cost. Then they
can get volunteers to do the hookup.
We also need some people who are aware of how to do this. So they
have to call upon people like the Bell Atlantic employees in my
district who have been magnificent. Bell Atlantic employees and Bell
Atlantic has supported the wiring of schools for Internet in my
district.
In other districts, they had other telecommunications companies and
they had unions. I think my colleague the gentlewoman from Michigan
(Ms. Stabenow) is a leader in this Congress; and she gave us a whole
handbook and a whole list of ways in which they can get their school
wired.
So wiring of a school by volunteers has been initiated by the
President and Vice President. Members of Congress and Democrats have
picked up on it. And we have had a large number of schools that have
been wired. They need the help on an ongoing basis to pay the cost of
telecommunications services.
Then there are other situations where a large number of schools have
not been wired. In the inner cities of America, most of the schools
still remain unwired.
I have led in my district an effort to wire schools. Out of the 70
schools that exist in my Congressional district, 70 schools,
elementary, junior high school and high school, we only wired 22. With
the great Herculean volunteer effort, we only wired 22.
We are a pilot program. We have had the help of the Board of
Education. We had the help of Bell Atlantic, one of the communications
companies. We had the help of a group called New York Connects, which
organizes other private-sector companies to give us help in wiring the
schools. We had a lot of help from a group called the Husain Institute
of technology. Mr. Husain is an engineer, a computer engineer, who
volunteers his services, as well as he operates a free school for
training students, adults, and children on the computer. So we have had
all this with us, and still we have only wired 22.
What this does, the E-rate, the universal fund does is allow this
process to be speeded up and accelerated. We do not have to wait for
all of this to be done by volunteers.
The first barrier that most inner cities cannot cross is that measly
$500 to $600. All they need for the kit to buy all the wire, all the
tools, all the hookups, all the plastic stuff, all the copper, all that
is supplied in a kit for $500 to $600.
Most schools cannot raise the $500 to $600. They cannot get the
volunteers outside to do it. We have been fortunate that Bell Atlantic
and New York Connects and some other private-sector people have done
that for us in order to make certain that nobody is left behind, that
all of the schools, private, parochial, and public in America do
receive this connection with the Internet.
By the way, the wiring of the schools, when we use that term, we are
talking about the library and five classrooms. Wiring of the schools is
library and five classrooms. It is not the whole school. It is just a
measly fundamental necessary beginning. And that is all we are asking.
Let the universal fund go forward Let us keep the E-rate so that that
is possible.
Let me just conclude this article by reading the last two paragraphs.
``Regardless of the controversy, Linda Smith, who is Director of
Technology for San Bernardino City Schools in California, said she
hopes policymakers will keep their commitments to help needy school
districts.''
[[Page H4623]]
I hope that policy makers will keep their commitments. I fear that
the bullies here will not let us do that. We are the policy makers. The
Congress of the United States wrote into the legislation that the FCC
should provide a way to make certain that all schools and libraries get
service, connection with the Internet. It is in the law. It is a very
simple statement, very general.
It was left up to the FCC to determine how to do that. The former
commissioner of the FCC, Reid Hunt, did a magnificent job of guiding us
to a point where they established this program, with all of its
complications.
The present commissioner, William Kanard, is attempting to carry out
what was decided upon by commissioners previously. It is most
unfortunate that the bullies have all ganged up on the FCC and have
forced them to back down. We lost half of the Internet as a result of
their actions.
The last paragraph of this article from the Congressional Quarterly
on July 13th, ``Most of the 46,000 students in Linda Smith's district,
77 percent of whom get free or reduced school lunches, do not have
computers at home or access to the Net,'' she said.
That is the case in my district. That is the case of thousands of
school districts across the country. They do not have access to the
Internet, and they will not have it if we let them take the universal
fund away.
Kids of America, AT&T, MCI, they are bullies. They are grinches who
want to steal the E-rate. They are giants who want to chase little
Jack. They are the big bad wolves. They are Yertle the Turtle. In the
comic books, there is the council of doom. In modern space comic books,
where we deal with the whole universe and in certain planets, sets of
planets, they have a council of doom, the evil monsters attempting to
gain control of the universe; and they raid against the counsel of
justice, the good guys who are attempting to go fight off evil and make
certain that democracy prevails in the universe and that everybody has
an opportunity to survive in the universe in peace and harmony.
Now we have got a council of doom going after the E-rate. The council
of doom has won the first battle. The council of doom was able to force
the FCC to back down and cut the E-rate in half. Kids of America, do
not take it lying down.
``Kids of America, wake up. Arise, March all together. Before
the E-rate dies.
Kids of America, arise. AT&T is telling your parents
misleading lies.
Kids of America, it is time to fight. Take out your light.
Let it shine for truth. Boycott the AT&T booth.
AT&T lies have clouded our blue skies. Don't make any calls.
Then the monster falls.
Kids arise. Fight AT&T lies. Altogether students attack. Take
opportunity and the Internet back.
Kids of America, arise.''
You do not have to take this lying down. Tell your parents you will
not allow them to take it lying down. You have a telephone. Call AT&T
now. Call your Congressman. We will not take this lying down. The
grinch will not steal the E-rate from the kids of America.
This giant will not destroy little Jack. The big bad wolf got
outwitted by Little Red Ridinghood. And we will outwit the big bad wolf
again. Yertle the turtle got knocked off his pedestal my Mack. The
council of doom has won the first battle. But we will not let the
council of doom prevail. The council of justice will take over.
{time} 1945
This is not the first time I have appealed to the kids of America to
come forward and fight. We won last time. When they tried to take the
school lunches away, or cut the school lunch program, I called on the
kids of America to rally, and they did. They got to their parents, they
got to the voters, the message got through to the Republicans that we
will not stand for a cut in the school lunch program.
Mr. Speaker, I am going to read my colleagues a section of the
Congressional Record from Tuesday, April 4, 1995. That was shortly
after we started the battle with the Republican majority to get back
the school lunch program. They had voted to cut the school lunch
program. I want Members to just see how relevant this battle is to the
present one. They could not cut the school lunch program, but now they
are going after something that is fundamental to the minds, the future
training opportunity for our young people.
On April 4, I entered the following statement into the Congressional
Record:
Mr. Speaker, the final word has not yet been said about the
Republican swindle of the children who receive free lunches
in schools across our Nation. But the final, most
authoritative figures have been established by the
Congressional Budget Office. The very conservative but
thorough Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the
Republicans will capture slightly more than $2 billion from
their block-granted school lunch program. They were going to
take $2 billion out of the school lunch program for the kids
of America. This will be $2 billion more to go into the tax
cut for the rich. This is a scenario filled with horror. It
conjures up the image of the poster where Uncle Sam is
pointing the finger and saying to potential military
recruits, ``I need you!'' While the Republicans advocate a
$50 billion increase in the Defense budget and turn their
backs on welfare for corporations and rich farmers, they are
saying to the children of America, ``This Nation needs your
lunch.''
Kids of America, there is a fiscal crunch.
This great Nation now needs your lunch.
To set the budget right, go hungry for one night.
Don't eat what we could save.
Be brave.
Patriots stand out above the bunch.
Proudly surrender lunch.
Kids of America, nutrition is not for you.
Sacrifice for the rich few.
When tummies hurt, go to bed.
Be a soldier and play dead.
The F-22 then might rescue you.
The Sea Wolf sub might bring hot grub.
Now hear this, there is a fiscal crunch.
This Nation needs your lunch.
Pledge allegiance to the flag.
Mobilize your own brown bag.
The enemy deficit must be defeated.
Nutrition suicide squads are desperately needed.
Kids of America, there is a fiscal crunch.
This great Nation now needs your lunch.
They demanded your lunch before and you said ``no.'' Your parents
said ``no.'' The voters said ``no.'' The Republican majority retreated.
Now they are demanding your opportunity to learn what you need to know
in order to go into the 21st century.
Kids of America arise.
Don't accept the AT&T lies.
MCI wants the E-rate to die.
A lot of other telecommunications corporations are suing the Federal
Communications Commission. Some misguided chairmen are bullying the
FCC. There are people coming to our defense. There are a lot of efforts
to try to turn back this terrible action. I want to commend the
chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Mr. Kennard. I want
to commend the Secretary of Education, Mr. Riley. They are fighting
back and we are going to fight back. Children will not be alone. There
are many others who will join us in this fight to make certain that the
E-rate is not stolen.
Jesse Jackson has attacked the telecommunications industry in an
article which appeared in the Amsterdam News on June 11. I quote from
the article:
A $2.25 billion program designed to provide discount rates
to wire poor urban school districts and libraries for the
Internet was unveiled Monday at the Chicago headquarters of
the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. At a press conference attended by
several Members of Congress and the Chicago Public School
System, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, the head of the
coalition, called the project another example of the growing
class gap in America. Companies that are perennially poised
to feed at the public trough, Jackson charged, have once
again turned their backs on the consumer by passing on the
cost of wiring poor urban and rural school districts to their
consumers. Although some 30,000 applications for the discount
rate have been submitted from school districts and libraries
across the country, Jackson noted that the telecommunications
industry is lobbying Congress to call a halt to the plan.
``This action will essentially resegregate our schools along
class lines,'' Jackson declared. On the other hand, he said
that there are schools that are wired for the Internet and
its attendant technology. Jackson said that the poor urban
and rural children will be shut out of the technology. He
said further that the big telecommunications moguls should
not be allowed to leave some children behind. ``They would
rather lock them up than train them in school facilities that
are adequately wired for increasing technology,'' Jackson
said.
As my colleagues know, it costs more than $30,000 a year to keep a
prisoner in a cell. Why can we not afford some discounts on
telecommunications to make certain that our children get the very best
possible education? Why is our leadership so blind? Why is there so
little vision? At a time like this when
[[Page H4624]]
America is more prosperous than it has been in decades, why are we
attempting to take away opportunity for children to learn what they
need to know in order to qualify for the jobs, in order to be leaders
in the 21st century?
Mr. Speaker, let me just conclude by reading a letter from William
Kennard, and a letter from Richard Riley. I will not read the entire
letter, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I enter into the Record two letters which appeared in
the Washington Post, one from William Kennard, Federal Communications
Commission Chairman, and one from the Secretary Richard W. Riley,
Secretary of Education, as follows:
A Computer in Every Classroom
(By William E. Kennard)
James Glassman's June 2 op-ed column criticized Congress's
decision to make connecting libraries and classrooms to the
communications network part of our national concept of
universal service. Mr. Glassman said the initiative is not
needed. But an enormous disparity in access to communications
technology exists in this country, and the Federal
Communications Commission is implementing its congressional
mandate in a way that supports local control of education and
does so without creating large, inefficient bureaucracies.
In the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress expanded
universal service to include advanced telecommunications
services to all public libraries and grades K through 12 in
public and private schools. Schools in affluent communities
now have double the Internet access of schools in low income
or rural areas. Nationwide, only 27 percent of our
classrooms, and only 13 percent of classrooms in our neediest
areas, have access to an Internet connection. Few poor
children will have access to the Internet outside of school,
yet studies show that students in classes that use computers
not only outperform their peers on standardized tests but
show more enthusiasm for communicating and learning. This
increase in technology will improve the lives of American
schoolchildren.
None of the changes means that local school boards will not
decide what technology to acquire and fund. On average,
universal service covers only 15 percent of the projected
cost of connecting, operating and using networks in
classrooms. Each school and library applying for a universal-
service discount must pay as much as 80 percent of the total
cost of the discounted service.
Universal service discounts can be applied only to the cost
of obtaining telecommunications services, establishing
network connections and receiving Internet access. School
districts also must certify that they have a plan for how to
use the discounted services and that the plan has been
approved by their state.
Nor is universal service for schools and libraries an
entitlement administered by an oversized federal bureaucracy.
The private, nonprofit, nonpolitical entity established to
administer the program has a staff of 14 people.
Mr. Glassman charged that I and other supporters of
universal service to rural America, low-income citizens and
classrooms and libraries have opposed efforts by
communications carriers to itemize contributions on
customer bills. On the contrary, I favor full disclosure
by all telephone companies. But companies that say they
will pass on ``new'' charges also should commit to passing
on reductions and to disclosing both. I support neither a
``hidden tax'' nor a ``hidden rate increase.''
Finally, let's be clear about the cost of universal service
for classrooms and libraries. Connecting classrooms and
libraries can be achieved for less than $1 per line per
month. The rest of the proposed universal service fees
continue our 60-year national commitment to affordable and
adequate telephone service for rural America and our poorest
citizens.
The real issue is not a ``hidden tax'' but the hidden
agenda of Mr. Glassman and others who oppose our national
commitment to ensuring that all Americans have access to
communications technology as we enter the 21st century.
____
(By Richard W. Riley)
James Glassman's misleading arguments against the
education-rate, or ``E-rate,'' do a disservice to our
children and to education.
The E-rate is one of the most important advances in
education in our time. It gives schools and libraries
significant discounts on the costs of Internet access,
distance learning and other on-line learning opportunities.
All schools will qualify for some discounts, with schools in
our poorest communities receiving the most assistance. The E-
rate is designed to help ensure that all children--regardless
of race, income or geography--will have the chance to learn
and succeed through the use of modern technology.
Mr. Glassman says that 80 percent of schools already are
connected to the Internet, but he doesn't say that connection
too often goes to one or two rooms, not to every classroom.
We must give all children access to the Information
Superhighway.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996, which provided for the
E-rate, led to reductions in access charges that long-
distance companies such as AT&T and MCI pay to connect to
local telephone companies. As a result, in the past 11
months, long-distance companies have enjoyed a savings of
$2.4 billion, more than offsetting the estimated $2.02
billion cost of the E-rate discount for schools and
libraries.
The E-rate has tremendous support among America's
educators, parents and business people. About 30,000 schools
and libraries have applied. It also has received strong
bipartisan support from the National Governors' Association
and Congress.
America's economy is in good shape, and our competitive
edge in technology is one of the big reasons why. We would be
foolish to allow that competitive edge to slip away. The E-
rate will help America create the most technically savvy work
force in the world and protect our nation's prosperity and
democratic values.
Mr. Speaker, I will just quote some of the items from Mr. Kennard's
letter:
In the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress expanded
universal service to include advanced telecommunications
services to all public libraries and grades K through 12 in
public and private schools. Schools in affluent communities
now have double the Internet access of schools in low-income
or rural areas. Nationwide, only 27 percent of our
classrooms, and only 13 percent of classrooms in our neediest
areas, have access to an Internet connection. Few poor
children will have access to the Internet outside of school,
yet studies show that students in classes that use computers
not only outperform their peers on standardized tests but
show more enthusiasm for communicating and learning. This
increase in technology will improve the lives of American
schoolchildren.
None of the changes means that local school boards will not
decide what technology to acquire and fund. On average,
universal service covers only 15 percent of the projected
cost of connecting, operating and using networks in
classrooms. Each school and library applying for a universal-
service discount must pay as much as 80 percent of the total
cost of the discounted service.
Universal service discounts can be applied only to the cost
of obtaining telecommunications services, establishing
network connections and receiving Internet access. School
districts also must certify that they have a plan for how to
use the discounted services and that the plan has been
approved by their State.
Nor is universal service for schools and libraries an
entitlement administered by an oversized Federal bureaucracy.
The private, nonprofit, nonpolitical entity established to
administer the program has a staff of 14 people.
Part of the reason that they have cited for attacking the program is
that they say the FCC is creating a bureaucracy. That is only a smoke
screen. They really want to get at the heart of the program which will
be an ongoing amount of money that the huge telephone communications
companies will have to pay to the fund. The greedy companies do not
want to share the largess and the benefits that they have had conferred
upon them from their Government. They do not want to share that with
children.
Finally, let's be clear about the cost of universal service
for classrooms and libraries. Connecting classrooms and
libraries can be achieved for less than $1 per line per
month. The rest of the proposed universal service fees
continue our 60-year national commitment to affordable and
adequate telephone service for rural America and our poorest
citizens.
The real issue is not a hidden tax but the hidden agenda of
those who oppose our national commitment to ensuring that all
Americans have access to communications technology as we
enter the 21st century.
That is by William Kennard, Chairman, Federal Communications
Commission.
Quoting from the letter by Richard Riley, the Secretary of Education:
The E-rate is one of the most important advances in
education in our time. It gives schools and libraries
significant discounts on the costs of Internet access,
distance learning and other on-line learning opportunities.
All schools will qualify for some discounts, with schools in
our poorest communities receiving the most assistance. The E-
rate is designed to help ensure that all children, regardless
of race, income or geography, will have the chance to learn
and succeed through the use of modern technology.
I might add that I often encounter when I am talking to parents in my
district and school board members and other leaders, they want to know
why is education technology so important, why are computers so
important?
We have problems. Our schools are overcrowded. We do not
have enough equipment. We do not have enough supplies. We
have too many substitute teachers. Why do you want to bother
us with another problem of wiring schools for the Internet?
My answer to that is a very simple one. If every city in America had
waited until all the sidewalks and all the roads were fixed and
repaired and in excellent condition before they decided to build an
airport, we would still be
[[Page H4625]]
waiting for the first airport to be built. What would that mean for
modern transportation in the United States? Education cannot stand
still while the rest of the world goes forward.
Quoting from Secretary Riley again:
The E-rate has tremendous support among America's
educators, parents and business people. About 30,000 schools
and libraries have applied. It also has received strong
bipartisan support from the National Governors' Association
and Congress.
America's economy is in good shape, and our competitive
edge in technology is one of the big reasons why. We would be
foolish to allow that competitive edge to slip away. The E-
rate will help America create the most technically savvy
workforce in the world and protect our Nation's prosperity
and democratic values.
Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley.
Mr. Speaker, in a situation which is so self-evident, why do we have
bullies who are attempting to wipe out this universal fund for schools
and libraries? Why? I talked last week about leadership. Powerful
leadership can determine the course of a Nation, the way they behave or
the way they are allowed to behave. But leadership is not just the
chairmen of committees. The chairmen of committees in America are
beholden to the committee members. The committee members are beholden
to the rest of the Congress.
If we took a poll among all the Members of Congress, I want the kids
of America to know that overwhelmingly the majority of the Members of
Congress support the E-rate. Overwhelmingly they support the universal
fund for libraries and schools, the Members of Congress. We have had an
undemocratic set of positions taken. The committee chairmen have
bullied the FCC. They have skirted the democratic process and used
their power to force the FCC to steal half of the E-rate from the
children of America.
Those committee chairmen need to be challenged. Any leadership that
will not accept the will of the Congress should be challenged. We will
challenge it on this floor. We want you to join us. Anybody who says
that this is not good for America, that we cannot afford it, we have
unprecedented prosperity and the telecommunications companies are
enjoying that prosperity. Also they are in a great position as a result
of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Why are they so mean? Why do
they want to steal from the children of America?
We have coming to the floor, next week probably, something called the
American Competitiveness Act. I have talked about that last week, too.
The American Competitiveness Act, and this has already passed the other
body, primarily this act calls for giving the jobs that our children
and our retrained workers ought to be having to foreigners. This act
wants to increase the quota for professionals who know computer
programming and computer science to come into this country. They have a
large number of vacancies. They want to fill the vacancies by bringing
in outsiders, instead of revamping the education system of America so
that we will always have all of the information technology workers that
we need.
This American Competitiveness Act has a counterpart in the Judiciary
Committee of the House. They do not even go as far as this act goes. At
least in this act some people were able to prevail on the committee to
enlarge it into including a small portion for training. There is some
money in here for scholarships and for retraining our unemployed
workers. That was added at the insistence of the Democrats on the
committee in the Senate.
{time} 2000
But the House Judiciary bill does not have any training money in it.
They are just going to increase the quota, increase the number of
immigrants who come in who are professionals who have knowledge of
computer science. Instead of giving the jobs to our people, they will
be giving them to others.
Most of these people come from English-speaking countries because
even though they have knowledge of computer science in central Europe
and Russia, the former Soviet Union, those people cannot come in as
efficiently because they have to learn the English language. So the
English speaking countries like India and Great Britain and many
others, they will be the ones who send the computer professionals, and
30,000 will be brought in this year, and after that 20,000 per year.
And since they are not increasing the overall immigration quota, other
immigrants who come in for other reasons are going to have their quota
cut. They are going to cut the quota somewhere else in order to
increase the professionals who come in.
Large numbers will come in from India because India had a set of
leaders who had vision. They started training their young people, their
students, in computer science long time ago, and they have established
the largest body of computer expertise in the world. We will be
importing large numbers from India to take the positions that are
vacant now in information technology.
It is ironical that a lot of criticism has been made on this floor
and by the President of India exploding a nuclear device, a nuclear
bomb. The same company that has a great role in the India nuclear
weapons program is a company that will be providing most of the workers
from India to come into this country to take the jobs and information
technology. They have provided them in the past, and they are going to
provide them now in the future.
In other words, many of the people came in in the past got know-how
expertise that they took back and applied in this nuclear weapons
program for India, and we are acting in a very hypocritical and
contradictory way.
The President cut off aid to India. We all made great statements
about how India has violated the spirit of a nuclear weapons ban, as my
colleagues know, but on the other hand we are aiding and abetting the
nuclear arms industry in India by bringing in workers to take jobs that
ought to go to workers here.
We ought to have a training program. As you have heard before, I
offered an amendment to the Higher Education Assistance Act which would
have provided a very reasonable training program where colleges and
universities would link up with community-based organizations and poor
neighborhoods, and they would provide access to computers for the
youngsters in low-income families that do not have access to computers.
It is a very practical kind of program. The people are ready. They are
ready to join 21st century.
Last week, last Saturday, I had what I call a synergy, a town meeting
and synergy conference, which brought together people from all parts of
my district, and the primary focus of this conference was information
technology. I wanted to have kind of a shock awareness of a shock
awareness to bring my constituents into an understanding of what is
needed if they want to share prosperity, the prosperity of now and the
prosperity that is going to expand in the 21st century. The jobs of
tomorrow will be jobs related to information technology.
I wanted my constituents to understand that it was a terrible day,
raining, you know thunderstorms, and when I saw the weather, I almost
gave up and said, you know, we have gone through all this getting
ready. We had experts from Bell Atlantic, Cable Vision. We had the
Secretary of Commerce bringing us a greeting over video to show them
how you can do that from video. We had the New York Technical Institute
providing an example of how interactive a video can work. We had a
magnificent program plan, and the rain came pouring down, and I was
despairing and suddenly behold the auditorium which held 500 people
filled up because the desire to know about what is going on in this
modern telecommunications-dominated world is so great, and so people
came out in the rain. Five hundred people came out to participate in
the program which was designed to introduce a shock awareness of what
is going on in the information technology world.
You know, we had the assistance of large numbers of people who want
to get involved and who are involved, and I have a group called ET-3
made up of people who call on the national groups involved in
information technology. We have booklets there from the Information
Technology Association of America which showed, you know, in graphic
detail what jobs are available. We had a group called American School
Directory which shows schools how to get themselves a web site for
nothing. American School Directory provides a web site for nothing, and
the schools have a tool kit which enables the teachers and the students
to put together their own web site.
[[Page H4626]]
A lot of marvelous things happen, and the New York State Department
of Education announced that day that $23 million is going to be
provided to the School Board of Education of New York. It is not State
or city money, it is money that we voted on here in Congress. The
Telecommunications Literacy Act provided money to States, and New York
State is just releasing the money to the local school districts and New
York City Board of Education will get $23 million. Most of that will be
devoted to training teachers and school personnel in how to utilize the
information technology.
A lot of good things took place, but the point I am making is that we
have a hunger for people out there in the low-income community. Most of
them came from the low-income area of my district to join the 21st
century and be knowledgeable and be able to survive there and prosper
there. We have a group called the Hussein Institute of Technology, as I
mentioned before, and they helped me to wire these 23 schools, most of
them with assistance of Hussein Institute of Technology and the Bell
Atlantic group that provides telephone service to the Brooklyn area. We
have wired using volunteers these 22 out of 70 schools in my district.
Our goal is to get everyone in 70 schools wired by December 31 of
this year. We are going to do it with volunteers, if we have to, but we
like to have the process speeded up by having some funds from the
universal fund rate, by having the knowledge out there among the
schools that once you get hooked up to the Internet, you do not have a
cost that is going to be burdensome. Many schools are reluctant to get
wired because, if they are wired to the Internet, they have to pay an
ongoing cost. What the E-rate does is pays a big percentage of that
cost for schools in my district. None of them would get less than an 80
percent discount because they have so many poor youngsters attending.
You are talking about 80 percent discount to practically all the
schools in my district for ongoing telecommunication services. That is
what is at stake here. They will lose it, and if that is lost, the
budgets of the school districts will not be able to bear this. They
will back up and say, look, equipment needs are greatest, we need
chalk, we need paper, we need so many other things. We are not going to
make a commitment of $1, of ten cents. We would be willing to make a
commitment of ten cents out of every dollar to telecommunication, but
we are not going to pay the whole cost, we cannot afford it. And you
have a complete choking of the process of bringing opportunity to the
school districts.
I said we need leadership. At a time like this we have a window of
opportunity. We are not at war in America, we need leadership. The kids
of America are to understand that our leadership is not preoccupied
with defending the country militarily. We have unprecedented prosperity
in the country. Why can we not open our eyes and understand that
investments in education at a time like this is most important?
The Roman empire, which was just a village compared with the American
colossus, the American colossus is something beyond an empire, and
Rome, as great as it was and as dominant as it was in this time was a
small thing. But the Roman empire, they invented a lot of technological
devices that we still have. The Romans invented concrete, and the
Romans were great masters of technology. They built huge cities. They
built the coliseum which still stands, the ruins still stand on solid
foundation after thousands of years. The Romans had achieved prosperity
in that time comparable to the kind of prosperity we have now.
But the Roman leadership failed, and Rome declined because the
leadership was not up to it consistently. At a time when the Roman
leadership was at its height technologically and they built the great
coliseum, what did they use the coliseum for? Their sport, their
favorite sports, were blood sports. They like to see gladiators killing
each other. You know, they were unevenly developed. They had great
technological development. They were masters of warfare. Nobody could
match them militarily. Nobody could match them technologically. But
there was something wrong with their compassion and their vision, and
they enjoyed watching people kill each other as a sport: Gladiators.
When they were not watching gladiators, they enjoyed watching wild
animals tear human beings apart. It is not a fable that the Romans
threw the Christians to the lions. They did that. They did that to more
than just the Christians. They enjoy watching people being devoured by
beasts. The coliseum with all of its intricate engineering has places
underneath they engineered for beasts to be put in cages and beasts to
be guided out where the people, the technologically-advanced Romans,
could enjoy watching the animals rip people apart.
Let us not in America fall into that deep trench of having our
technological development outpace our compassion. Let us not steal
Internet from the children. Let us stop AT&T. Let us stop all of those
who want to steal Internet from the kids in America.
____________________