[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 111 (Friday, August 7, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1607]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


            INTRODUCTION OF THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS TRUST ACT

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                             HON. RON KLINK

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, August 6, 1998

  Mr. KLINK. Mr. Speaker, today I'm introducing legislation to end the 
controversy over funding for the e-rate, make Federal 
telecommunications subsidies more explicit and stable and begin a 
needed national debate on the Federal role in supporting universal 
telecommunications service.
  My bill, the Telecommunications Trust Act, will dedicate the Federal 
phone excise tax to Federal universal service support through a 
Telecommunications Trust Fund, very much like the Federal gas tax funds 
Federal transportation spending.
  This bill will accomplish several things. First, it will remove the 
new line-item charges many consumers are seeing on their phone bills 
and end the debate over funding the schools and libraries part of 
universal service. That program will be funded through the 
Telecommunications Trust Fund, as will rural health care, rural high 
cost and lifeline Federal service support.
  Furthermore, by dedicating the phone excise tax to universal service, 
we will be fulfilling the directive of the Telecommunications Act of 
1996 that universal service subsidies be explicit rather than implicit.
  Universal service has been subsidized implicitly for 60 years by 
consumers and businesses paying more for phone service so that those in 
high cost and rural areas could have affordable phone service. My 
legislation will make that support explicit and dedicate the phone 
excise tax to that purpose.
  Furthermore, it will provide honesty to phone bills by shifting the 
revenue from the excise tax from the treasury to telecommunications. 
The Federal phone excise tax is a vestige of the Spanish-American War 
and has been in effect off and on for a century. It is time this tax 
revenue went to telecommunications, just as the gas tax goes to 
transportation.
  Finally, I am hoping that this bill will begin a public debate on 
issues currently being discussed at the Federal Communications 
Commission (FCC) and in Congress: how should Federal universal 
telecommunications support be achieved in the digital age.




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