[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 30 (Thursday, February 25, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H813]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            PROVIDING FOR COMPETITION IN THE CABLE INDUSTRY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana.
  Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for doing so because I 
would be remiss if I did not second what the gentleman has just said, 
that we are about to see the complete deregulation of cable in America 
at the end of March. If American citizens cannot receive network 
programing over their satellites when they are entitled to receive it, 
they are going to be forced to either climb up on the roof and try to 
put up antennas that may or may not get good signals or go back to the 
monopoly cable company which will be deregulated.
  We in this Chamber, and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey) 
has been a valiant soldier in this effort along with me and others, 
have tried to desperately make sure that cable has a competitor out 
there before they are deregulated. This court decision means for 
thousands of Americans, hundreds of thousands of Americans, they are 
forced back into a cable monopoly instead of a competitive choice.
  It is critical that we find a solution this year to get local signals 
into the satellite feed so that Americans have a real choice when cable 
is deregulated. You and I know when there is only one store in town, 
you get bad prices, bad service and bad quality of products. But when 
you got a choice, when there are two stores in town, prices get better, 
service gets better, quality gets better.
  Americans deserve a choice in television. This moratorium is just a 
stop-gap measure to help us find that solution, and I thank the 
gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. MARKEY. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, for a consumer, if they 
subscribe to cable today, they can get all of their local TV stations 
on that cable system. If they subscribe to satellite, they cannot get 
the local channels. The gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin) and I, 
and the other members of our committee, we are going to try to rectify 
this.
  If Tip O'Neill was here today and looking at these issues, he would 
say that all politics of satellites are local, into local. How do we 
provide local people with their local TV stations? We are going to try 
to do that this year, and, I think, provide real competition through 
wireless, through satellite and other technologies to the cable 
industry and give the consumer a real break.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate the gentleman.

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