[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 55 (Monday, May 8, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H2637-H2641]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    NEW ECONOMY OF THE 21ST CENTURY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 1999, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. WELLER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to address this 
House today on issues I believe are extremely important to our economy 
and to working families not only from my State in Illinois, but across 
this country.
  Mr. Speaker, I represent a very diverse district. I represent the 
south suburbs of Chicago, as well as the southern part of the city of 
Chicago. I represent bedroom communities and farm communities, a very, 
very diverse district of city and suburbs and communities.
  I often find as I travel throughout the district that I have the 
privilege of representing, whether I am at the Steelworkers Hall in 
Hegewisch, a neighborhood in Chicago, or at the Legion Post in Joliet, 
or a grain elevator in Tonica, Illinois, or a coffee shop in my 
hometown of Morris, I find that there is a pretty common message 
whether I am in the city, the suburbs, or country; and that is that the 
folks back home in Illinois and the land of Lincoln, they tell me that 
they want us to work to find solutions to the challenges that we face.
  Those solutions sometimes require a bipartisan effort. In many cases 
they do. I am proud that our efforts over the last few years of working 
together to come up with solutions produced the first balanced budget 
in 28 years, the first middle class tax cut in 16 years, the first real 
welfare reform in a generation. We stopped the raid on Social Security, 
and we began paying down the national debt.
  Those are real accomplishments, and they are producing results. We 
have seen unprecedented economic growth for 9 years, economic growth 
that started in 1991 and continues to this day; and clearly, the 
balanced budget contributes to its continued growth.
  I am proud to say the balanced budget now is producing almost $3 
trillion of extra money. And rather than arguing over how to eliminate 
the deficit, today we are arguing over what to do with that extra 
money.
  Our welfare reform has resulted in an almost 50 percent reduction in 
our Nation welfare roles. Seven million former welfare recipients are 
now working and have joined employment roles, having economic 
opportunity and a chance to move up the economic ladder.
  I am also proud to say that when we stopped the raid on Social 
Security and began the process of paying down the national debt that, 
in the last 3 years, we paid down $350 billion of the national debt. 
And we are on track with the budget we are going to pass this year to 
eliminate the national debt by the year 2013. That is progress. That is 
real results.
  Tonight I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about an area of our 
economy, an area of American society and, frankly, a part of our global 
economy, an area that there is greater interest in, for a lot of 
reasons. And tonight I wanted to talk about the new economy and some of 
the challenges, as well as some of the solutions, to the new economy of 
the 21st century.
  Let me start, in talking about the new economy, to talk about some 
facts, some statistics about the Internet and the new economy.
  Over 100 million United States adults today are using the Internet, 
and seven new people are on the Internet for the first time every 
second. Seventy-eight percent of Internet users almost always vote in 
national, State and local elections, compared with only 64 percent of 
non-Internet users.
  From a historical standpoint, the Internet began as the Advanced 
Research Project's Agency Network during the Cold War back in 1969 as a 
way of trying to determine how our military could communicate in time 
of nuclear war. Clearly, here is a peacetime conversion of military 
technology.
  What is hard to believe is that it only took 5 years for the Internet 
to reach 50 million users, a much faster one compared to the 
traditional electronic media. It took television 13 years and it took 
radio 38 years to reach that same audience. In just 5 years, 50 million 
users were on the Internet.
  The Internet economy today generates an estimated 301 billion U.S. 
dollars in revenue, and it is responsible for over 1.2 million jobs. 
And preliminary employment data shows that the technology industry in 
America employed 4.8 million workers in 1998, making it one of our 
Nation's largest industries.
  The average high-tech average wage was 77 percent higher than the 
average U.S. private sector wage. It is also interesting to note that 
63 percent of Americans believe that the Internet will be equally or 
more important than traditional sources of information in the future.
  When it comes to all of our pocketbooks, the Federal Reserve 
Chairman, Alan Greenspan, points out and says that in the last few 
years, one third of all the economic growth, one third of all the new 
jobs that have been created in our economy, result from technology, 
much of it generated from the Internet.
  I am proud to come from a great State, the great State of Illinois. 
Illinois, of course, is nicknamed in many cases, we think of it as an 
industrial State, we think of Illinois as an agricultural State. But 
Illinois is also a technology State. People often think of Silicon 
Valley, they think of the Silicon Corridor in Boston, they think of 
Seattle and Redmond, home to Microsoft and some of our bigger 
technology corporations; and they often overlook the fact that the 
Chicago land region ranks fourth today in technology employment, with 
well over 210,000 technology workers currently working in technology in 
Illinois.

[[Page H2638]]

  I pointed out that the wages of technology jobs are 77 percent more 
than other jobs in today's economy. I would also point out that 
technology trade is extremely important to Illinois, my home State. 
Illinois exported over $16 billion just a couple years ago, making 
Illinois the third highest ranking State in our Union when it comes to 
technology exports. I am pretty proud of that.
  And we think of the map here, which shows the top cyber States, the 
States which generate the most jobs from technology. As I pointed out 
earlier, Illinois ranks fourth today in technology employment.
  Of course, Texas and California have grown the most in technology 
employment. In fact, just in the last few years, technology employment 
in Texas, home to Governor Bush, has seen the greatest growth in 
technology.

                              {time}  2030

  As I mentioned earlier, technology employment not only in my State of 
Illinois but throughout this country is a major contributor to our 
economy, in jobs in millions, in technology. According to these 
statistics here, there were 4.8 million jobs in technology in 1998. 
That is more than the combined jobs in steel, chemicals, auto 
manufacturing and services.
  Think about that. The traditional industries of steel and chemicals, 
which of course that is petroleum and, of course, auto, traditional 
basic jobs of our old economy of the 20th century, those jobs today are 
outnumbered by the jobs in technology. Clearly our economy is changing.
  We often have to ask, how can we harness that change to benefit the 
average working American? How can we harness that growth in the new 
economy so that every American has the opportunity to participate in 
that economic growth as well as to contribute with their ideas and 
entrepreneurship? I have listened to many of those who work in 
technology, many of those who have created; that is, the companies that 
have done so well, those who have created that new technology, created 
those jobs and opportunity. It is all about creativity. That is 
something I have learned when it comes to technology. But the message 
is clear. If we want to harness the new economy to continue to provide 
growth and opportunity for the American people, if we want to ensure 
that, there are some three basic rules that we want to, I think, adopt.
  Some say, what can Congress, what can government do to get involved 
in the new economy? Of course the government likes to regulate and tax 
as well as to stick its nose into a lot of things. But clearly this 
success of the new economy, the fact that high tech job wages are 77 
percent higher than other sectors of the economy, the fact that one-
third of all these new jobs have been created by the technology 
economy, the fact that our economy is growing so rapidly because of 
technology resulted basically because government was not in the way.
  Clearly as we work to build our new economy, the best approach for 
government basically is to stay out of the way and let the private 
sector innovate and create with a goal of a tax-free, trade-barrier-
free and regulation-free new economy. I am proud to say that House 
Republicans continue to lead in the effort to build and promote 
opportunity in the new economy.
  We of course are working to honor what we call the e-contract 2000, a 
contract that we are committed to, to grow the new economy and to 
provide digital opportunity for all Americans. Of course, the central 
tenets, the central goals of our e-contract are to grow the new economy 
by reducing taxes, limiting regulation, reducing unnecessary lawsuits, 
promoting free trade and e-commerce and building a high tech future. 
Those are lofty goals. But if we all work together in Congress and we 
all work together in the same way that we succeeded in balancing the 
budget for the first time in 28 years, the way that we cut taxes for 
the middle class for the first time in 16 years, take the same approach 
that we succeeded in cutting our welfare rolls in half with the 
implementation of welfare reform and it all resulted in a growing 
economy that has seen unprecedented economic growth and the lowest 
unemployment in 30 years.
  I am proud to say our approach to lowering taxation, minimizing 
regulation and promoting trade-barrier-free commerce has produced some 
real accomplishments in this Congress. I am proud that thanks to 
Republican leadership, we put in place a moratorium on new taxes on 
Internet sales so that we do not double-tax and increase taxation of 
the new economy. My hope is that will be extended and we can have a 
vote on that fairly soon.
  I am proud to say as a Republican Congress that rewarded investment 
and the creation of new technology and research with what is the 
longest ever extension of the research and development tax credit, to 
make it easier to attract new investment in research and development 
technology, the R&D tax credit, that was one of those that every year 
was extended maybe for 9 months or 12 months. When you are a private 
employer considering investing your resources, your dollars in R&D, you 
always think about the tax consequences. By extending it for 5 years, 
we made sure that when they invest, they can be confident that that 
investment will be recognized and treated fairly under our tax code.
  I am also proud to say that this Republican Congress recognizes the 
importance of protecting intellectual property rights, ensuring those 
who innovate and create and come up with new ideas get the credit as 
well as benefit from their hard work and their labors when we passed 
the Intellectual Property Rights Protection Act in 1998. Soon we are 
going to be passing the e-sign legislation, legislation that 
establishes a uniform and legally binding standard for electronic 
signatures in e-commerce. You often think of legal documents being a 
piece of paper. Today, so much of the business, so many transactions 
today are done over the Internet. We have to ensure that we can come up 
with a way to ensure that those business transactions are legally 
binding even though it is a virtual transaction and that e-sign 
legislation which has passed the House and Senate, we are now in 
conference working out differences in our legislation between the House 
and Senate, moves quickly so that we can continue to grow the new 
economy.

  I am proud of those accomplishments. We have also passed out of the 
House more legislation protecting intellectual property rights; the 
American Inventors Protection Act addressed the issue of cyber-
squatting, those folks who would steal names. I am also proud to say 
that under the leadership of those who want to promote research, which 
is the Republican majority, that we passed out of the House the Network 
and Information Technology Research and Development Act, legislation 
that boosts Federal investment in new technology, in new ideas helping 
grow the new economy. Those are accomplishments. We have moved that out 
of the House.
  I have said that one of our other goals of the Republican majority is 
also to promote barrier-free trade. Coming up in less than 2 weeks is 
probably going to be the most important technology vote of the year, a 
vote that will determine what kind of access Americans would like to 
give themselves into what is the world's largest market. It will be a 
decision over whether Americans want to sell products to over 1.3 
billion customers. That is the issue of whether or not we grant 
permanent normal trade relations with China.
  China, of course, is the world's most populous nation. China has made 
a commitment to join the World Trade Organization and live by the 
rules, to honor intellectual property agreements, to honor trade 
agreements. As we know right now, they have access to our markets. All 
we have to do is go to the discount store and shop for some T-shirts to 
see that China has access to our markets. The question really is, do we 
want access to China's market? That is why the vote on permanent normal 
trade relations, the same trade status we give to almost everyone else, 
if we are going to give ourselves access to that market. To me it is 
the normal thing to do, to want to be able to sell our products that we 
make in Illinois in China.
  Now, China is pretty important in technology. I would point out of 
the top five U.S. exports to China, the top five are electrical 
machinery as well as office machines, particularly computers. Of course 
it is expected that by

[[Page H2639]]

the end of this year, within the next couple of years, by the end of 
2001, that China will become the world's second largest personal 
computer market. I would note that over the last 10 years, U.S. 
technology exports to China have increased by 500 percent. Think about 
that. If technology is the fastest growing sector of our economy, if 
technology is the part of our economy that is creating the biggest 
chunk of new jobs, one-third of all new jobs being created by 
technology, would we not want to sell those products in the world's 
largest market? And, of course, that is China.
  Illinois, of course, is a major exporting State. As I pointed out 
earlier, Illinois ranks fourth in technology jobs. But Illinois ranks 
third in export and trade of our technology. It is important to us. We 
exported over a billion dollars from Illinois to China last year. I 
think we need more opportunity in that market. That is why I support 
normal trade relations with China, because it is good for American 
workers and it is going to create more jobs for American workers. 
Clearly if we want to grow our technology economy, which I certainly 
want to do for the State I am proud to represent, Illinois, we need to 
increase our market.
  I also wanted to talk a little bit as we talk about technology not 
only about trade but about another challenge that we face. That is 
something that some people call the digital divide, what I call the 
challenge to provide digital opportunity. What really hit home about 
the issue of the need to provide digital opportunity is when I talk to 
educators, teachers, school board members, school administrators, and 
they tell me that they are beginning to notice a difference in the 
classroom between the children who have a computer at home and those 
who do not. That the school kids who have a computer at home to work on 
their schoolwork, their homework seem to be doing a little better in 
school than those who do not. That is an issue of concern to our 
educators.

  Clearly education has been a priority in this Congress. In fact in 
our budget this year, we increased funding for elementary and secondary 
education by 10 percent while balancing the budget. So at the same time 
we are making education a priority, maybe we need to think about what 
we can do to help those kids who do not have a computer at home so that 
they can compete in the classroom. That is a big issue here, creating 
digital opportunity for our kids and for the future. Because those 
young people, those children that do not have a computer at home, if 
they are behind in school because they do not have a computer and 
trying to compete with their classmates, think about what that means 
for them long-term in competing for jobs and, of course, competing in 
the new economy of the 21st century.
  There are some interesting statistics out there. People say the 
digital divide. What really is the digital divide? We hear about it. If 
the digital divide is out there, is there something that we can do to 
make that digital divide really something called digital opportunity? 
If we think about it here, it is interesting that when we look at the 
digital divide, it is interesting that many cases it is the income 
level of the family that creates the digital divide. It says here, some 
statistics I have with me today, that urban households earning more 
than $75,000 annually are more than 20 times likely to have home 
Internet access compared to urban families at the lowest income levels. 
Think about that. In many communities in this State of Illinois as well 
as in this country, $75,000 is middle class or upper middle class. But 
they are 20 times as likely to have computers and Internet access as 
low-income families. I would also point out that those families with 
persons making less than $25,000 annually generally cite cost as the 
primary reason for not using the Internet at home, while those making 
more cite do not want it as the reason.
  Let me repeat that again. Low-income families say the reason they do 
not have computer at home, the reason they do not have access to the 
Internet is because of the cost, whereas higher income families just 
because they do not want to have it. So clearly there is a recognition 
by those families in many cases who do not have computers and Internet 
access that if they had a little more money or somehow Internet access 
could be more affordable that they would want their children to have 
computers at home, too.
  How can we create digital opportunity recognizing that income 
disparity on the so-called digital divide? I have also learned that if 
you look at statistics, that education level creates a digital divide. 
Those with the higher level of education, higher level of education 
degrees tend to have computers and Internet access. In fact, those with 
college degrees are 10 times more likely to have Internet access at 
work than persons with only some high school education. And that 62 
percent of those with college degrees now use the Internet, while those 
with only a grade school education, only about 7 percent of them use 
the Internet. And also in rural areas it is interesting that those with 
college degrees are more likely to have access to the Internet than 
those without. So how can we ensure that those who are from families 
where there is not a college degree have computers and Internet access?
  Some say we should be just talking about that digital divide. I 
believe that we should be looking for ways to create digital 
opportunity, because if we create digital opportunity, we can harness 
the new economy to ensure that every child has access to computers and 
the Internet, not only at school but at home. We are of course working 
in the Republican majority to find ways to provide digital opportunity, 
to eliminate the so-called digital divide. We want to pass tax 
incentives to encourage computers at home as well as in the school.

                              {time}  2045

  We want to encourage donation of computers to schools by the private 
sector. We want to bring down the costs of Internet access, and we 
pointed out earlier lower-income families identify the costs of 
Internet access and the costs of having that computer as their chief 
barrier to having a home computer for their child to be able to do 
their school work on.
  Clearly, we have to work on an agenda, which will provide digital 
opportunity, digital opportunity for families, digital opportunities 
for e-commerce, both at home as well as at work. There are several ways 
we can do that.
  Clearly, the ways we can do that is to give educational priority so 
that as we raise the education level, people tend to have a computer 
and Internet access, but also when it comes to education, should we not 
also ensure that families know how to use a computer; that teachers 
understand how to train students on how to use that computer for 
homework and classes, as well as research on school papers and 
preparing for a test?
  I am proud to say that this House continues to lead the way in 
boosting education. As I mentioned earlier, we increased funding in 
this year's balanced budget by 10 percent for public education, a 10 
percent increase while even balancing the budget, but we also worked to 
make sure those dollars reach the classroom, and that those dollars 
have distributed back to our local schools in a way that those schools 
can take advantage of those programs to train teachers, as well as to 
ensure that there is technology in the wire, in the fiber and the 
hardwares installed in the classroom.
  We are ready soon to vote on here in the House the Education Options 
Act, legislation which will provide training for teachers, to integrate 
technology into the classroom, that has passed committee, and it is 
waiting for a vote here in the House.
  I am also proud to say that the House Committee on Ways and Means 
which I serve on has improved the Education Savings in School 
Excellence Act, a program that would increase the amount of money you 
can set aside in Education Savings Account from $500 to $2,000 allowing 
families to save more for their child's education, but I would also 
point out that those dollars we would allow families to use to buy 
computer equipment and also the software they need to run those 
computers, and they would also be able to use those dollars to hire a 
tutor, if necessary, to help their child catch up in the classroom.
  That legislation has passed committee. It is waiting a vote here in 
the full House of Representatives. The House of Representatives just 
this past

[[Page H2640]]

year passed the Teacher Empowerment Act which allows local schools to 
spend Federal dollars to teach educators how to integrate technology 
into the classroom, to ensure that technology is in the classroom, but 
also to ensure that teachers understand how to use that technology and 
better educate the children.
  Mr. Speaker, I would also point out that there is a number of 
initiatives in the Committee on Ways and Means that I serve on which 
would also help provide computers in the school. I am proud to say that 
the House Committee on Ways and Means is now considering the New 
Millennium Classrooms Act, legislation that would increase the amount 
of the charitable deduction that a business would receive if they 
donate their surplus computers to schools.
  Those are good ideas, good ideas to help in the classroom, good ideas 
to ensure that our children have an opportunity at school in how to use 
a computer, that teachers know how to use those computers, that 
teachers also know how to train them, but the other solution I believe 
to helping eliminate so-called digital divide, providing greater 
digital opportunity, is to find ways so that families could have 
computers and Internet access at home, so that when school children 
bring their homework home, they have got a computer at home to work on 
it, a computer they can use to solve their problems and to access the 
Internet for research, so that they can contact the Library of 
Congress, the greatest library in the world, via the Internet, and, of 
course, have that literally at home as a research tool to prepare their 
schools paper. And that is a challenge.
  As I mentioned earlier in the statistics, many of these low-income 
families that do not have computers identify the costs of Internet 
access as being the barrier that prevents them from having computer and 
Internet access. So how can we solve that challenge?
  I am proud to say a major employer in our country, but also a major 
in the District that I represent, and I have two Ford auto plants in 
Hegewisch and Chicago Heights, that I represent would point out that 
companies have stepped forward, major corporations have stepped forward 
in our country, Ford Motor Company, Intel, American Airlines, Delta 
Airlines and have stepped forward in that effort to help ensure that 
their workers have computers at home so their workers children have 
those computers for their school work. Think about that.
  American Airlines has 100,000 employees, between Ford Motor Company, 
American Airlines, Intel and Delta Airlines, 600,000 workers, every one 
from the guy who sweeps the assembly line floor, to the CEO, every one 
of those families, universal access to Ford Motor Company's families, 
to the Internet in computers, as a result of a program they are now 
offering, which will provide as an employee benefit computers and 
Internet access.
  It would be an employee benefit the same as a pension or as your 
health care coverage, having a computer at home and subsidize reduced 
rate Internet access. Think about that. American Airlines, 100,000 
employees, Intel, American Ford Motor Company and Delta Airlines, a 
total of 600,000 families that will benefit from this type of program.
  I believe we should find more companies willing to step forward to 
provide digital opportunity on a universal basis for their employees. 
There is a consequence. We discovered that when Ford and Intel and 
American and Delta stepped forward to provide this benefit for their 
employees, computers and Internet access to help their children learn 
at home that there is a tax consequence.
  The consequence was that this new benefit for employees having a 
computer and Internet access was taxable, which meant the worker would 
have to pay higher taxes in order to have that computer and that 
Internet access, and that is a question; is that right? I don't believe 
so.
  To me, it is just good government policy to encourage private 
employees to help eliminate the digital divide, to provide greater 
digital opportunity. That is why I am proud that just prior to the 
Passover on Easter break, before Congress took a 2-week break to be 
back home in our districts, that I was joined by my colleague the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) in introducing what we call the 
DDATA Act, the Digital Divide Access Technology Act, legislation that 
treats this computer and Internet access benefit that is provided by 
private employer to employees as a tax-free benefit.
  It treats it the same as an employee contribution to a worker's 
pension, as an employer's contribution to a worker's health care 
benefits. It just make sense.
  My hope is this legislation will receive bipartisan support and move 
quickly through the House. Ladies and gentlemen, we want to eliminate 
the digital divide. We want to eliminate the digital divide by creating 
digital opportunity at school, as well as in the home. I am proud of 
that. It is important initiative. Both initiatives deserve bipartisan 
support.
  We also want to provide greater digital opportunity in the workplace. 
One of the ways we need to do a better job here in the Congress, where 
we can stay out of the way, but also bring fairness to the Tax Code, is 
to recognize the need, the need to modernize and update the tax 
treatment of technology in the workplace. Technology changes pretty 
rapidly.
  Mr. Speaker, today, private employers are replacing the computers in 
their office every 14 to 16 months, but under our current Tax Code, our 
employers and private businesses, whether it is the realtor or the 
insurance agent, as well as the big corporation, they have to carry 
those computers on their books for 5 years. They are depreciated over a 
5-year period, even though that computer is replaced every 14 months.
  Essentially, our Tax Code is discouraging private employers and 
business from taking advantage of the latest technology, because the 
Tax Code says if we are going to depreciate that you have got to keep 
it on the books for 5 years; that really delays the decision to upgrade 
the technology.
  Now that we are in the global economy, do we not want the business 
community and our employers and those who use computers in the 
workplace to have the latest technology to compete? I think we do, and 
that is why I introduced legislation called the Computer Depreciation 
Reform Act of 2000, legislation which will eliminate that 5-year 
depreciation schedule and recognize reality here in the 21st century, 
and, that is, the need to reform depreciation and essentially what we 
call expensing in government jargon which means you can fully deduct 
the cost of that computer in the first year; 1 year, rather than 5, 
that recognizes the 14 to 16 months that you replace your computer.
  Before I close, I am going to mention the last tax initiative that I 
believe deserves support that is now before the Committee on Ways and 
Means. Many poor families, as I noted earlier in the statistics that I 
share, have stated that the costs of Internet access in computers at 
home is a chief barrier to having those computers and having Internet 
access for children and their families in order to help them to do 
their schoolwork and do their research for school papers at home.
  I have talked about solutions that Republicans are offering to ensure 
that computers are available at school and Republicans solutions to 
ensuring that computers are available at home, but I am also proud to 
say that there is legislation which I hope we bring before this House 
also early this summer, which will again help reduce the costs of those 
computers.
  Frankly, what we are doing under this proposal is to eliminate what 
was once a temporary tax on your telephone, that was put in place 
during the Spanish-American war to pay off the Spanish-American war 
debt, probably the best example of one of those taxes that never ends, 
because when that tax was enacted 100 years ago, it was a luxury tax, 
because not many people had telephone. They figured they stick it to 
rich people and, of course, over time we now have telephones. And we 
are all paying this tax, and it was conveniently forgotten to end it. 
Three cents on every dollar of your telephone service is now collected 
and goes to Uncle Sam.
  Mr. Speaker, if we want to reduce access costs to the Internet, we 
have to recognize that the majority of people who access the Internet 
obtain their

[[Page H2641]]

access through the telephone lines. And, of course, if you charge 3 
cents on the dollar in taxes for every dollar of telephone use, that 
means every time you access your computer, access the Internet, it is 
costly.
  Let us end that Spanish-American war tax. Let us repeal the telephone 
excise tax, and think about it if it is 3 percent, that means that your 
grandmother, who is on a limited income, who uses the telephone to call 
her grandchildren across this country is paying that 3 percent the same 
as the millionaire who may live across the street.
  Ladies and gentlemen, it is a regressive tax as well, so we can 
reduce the costs for lower-income families, the Internet access by 
repealing the telephone excise tax.
  Ladies and gentlemen, we have some big challenges before us and the 
new economy is contributing so much to the America's future, an economy 
that is driven by technology and an economy that has grown because 
government stayed out of the way. If we continue to want to see the new 
economy grow and technology provide greater opportunity for the 
American people, then I believe we need to continue that approach of a 
tax-free, regulation-free, trade barrier-free new economy.
  We have some solutions. Solutions that promote education. Solutions 
that promote education as a way of contributing to the new economy. We 
also have solutions to address the so-called digital divide. I believe 
we need to provide digital opportunity in school, at home, and in the 
workplace, and that means we need to pursue a tax-free, trade barrier-
free and regulation-free new economy, because that is what it is all 
about, digital opportunity for our kids and for our future.
  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to address this House this 
evening.

                          ____________________