[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 94 (Wednesday, July 15, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H5503]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                PLEDGE TO FULLY FUND THE E-RATE PROGRAM

  (Mr. RUSH asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to alert my colleagues to the 
growing threat to the E-rate program. This key provision of the 
Telecommunications Act of 1996 makes sure that our Nation's poorest 
children do not get left behind along the information superhighway by 
providing telecommunications services at a discounted cost to poor and 
rural schools and libraries.
  To date, more than 30,000 applications for the program have been 
received, including over 200 in my district. As part of the 
Telecommunications Act, long distance companies agree to support the E-
rate program through their contributions to the Universal Service Fund. 
In exchange, the industry has reaped billions of dollars in lower 
access charges and expanded market share. Now they want to renege on 
the deal.
  Today I am calling on my colleagues to pledge their commitment to 
seeing that the E-rate program is fully funded. To pull the plug on 
full funding of the E-rate program is to further exacerbate the great 
digital divide between the haves and have-nots and will leave our 
children unprepared to move into the new millennium. Let us not let 
that happen.

                          ____________________