[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 137 (Thursday, October 17, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S10635]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              FCC VACANCY

  Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, earlier today I spoke briefly about the 
nomination of Mr. Adelstein to serve as a member of the Federal 
Communications Commission. I know that the two Senate leaders are 
working on nominations to see if they could clear some today. I don't 
know the final result of that, but it now appears as if that will not 
be the case. I want to speak not about all of the nominations that are 
awaiting confirmation by the Senate but only about this nomination.
  This nomination doesn't have so much to do with the person I am 
speaking of, Jonathan Adelstein, as it has to do with the position at 
the Federal Communications Commission, a vacant spot that has been 
there over a year. That particular nomination is critically important 
especially to rural States and rural areas.
  We have a Federal Communications Commission that is on the edge of 
making critically important decisions about the future of 
telecommunications. These decisions will have a profound impact on a 
significant part of our country.
  Chairman Powell and others, I fear, are going to take action in a 
wide range of areas that will have a significant impact on rural 
America. Mr. Copps is one commissioner fighting valiantly. His is a 
refreshing voice that stands up for the interests of rural America. But 
we now have this vacancy at the FCC for 13 months.
  Mr. Jonathan Adelstein is a superbly qualified candidate who should 
have been there long ago and has been held up at a number of 
intersections with this process.
  On September 7, Gloria Tristani resigned the FCC. This is a 
Democratic seat. There are Republican and Democratic appointments. This 
is a Democratic appointment. It took forever for the White House to get 
his nomination to the Senate. The Commerce Committee on which I serve 
approved it and reported it out on July 23. So 13 months after the 
vacancy was available, and 4 months after the Commerce Committee took 
action on Jonathan Adelstein's nomination, that position is still 
vacant. We have one commissioner's slot down at the FCC that is 
unfilled.
  The voice of Mr. Adelstein could join that of Mr. Copps in speaking 
up, standing up, and fighting for rural interests for those millions of 
Americans who live in more sparsely populated States and for whom 
telecommunications policy will be the difference of being on the right 
or wrong side of the digital divide, will mean whether you have 
economic opportunity and economic growth or not. These policies are 
critically important for all Americans but especially for Americans who 
live in my part of the country and in a rural State.
  Think back to the 1930s, when we had a country in which if you lived 
out on the farm, you had no electricity. No one was going to bring 
electricity to the farm until public policy said, through the REA 
program, we will electrify America's farms. We will have a Federal 
program and public policy that says we will move electricity to all the 
small towns and family farms in our country. We did that, and we 
unleashed productivity never before imagined.
  Some who are in a regulatory body today have the mindset that if the 
market system doesn't provide for it, it shall not be available. They 
would never have had an REA program. We would still be having America's 
farms without electricity. We would not have made the progress we did. 
But we have people in these regulatory agencies who have this mindset. 
They worship at the altar of the market system. Listen, the market 
system is a wonderful thing. I am all for it, but it needs effective 
regulation. Effective regulation by the FCC in telecommunications 
policy is critical to our future.

  The market system is a system that says to us that someone who 
portrays a judge on television--I will not name the judges. There are 
three or four of them. I will name one--Judge Judy--makes $7 million a 
year, I read in the paper. That is the market system. The Chief Justice 
of the U.S. Supreme Court makes $180,000 a year. That is the market 
system. A schoolteacher might make $30,000 or $40,000, and a shortstop 
for the Texas Rangers may make $250 million over 10 years. The market 
system. The market system is wonderful.
  I have studied economics, taught it, and been able to overcome it, 
however, and still lead a good life. I believe in the market system. I 
think it is a wonderful thing. But it needs effective regulation, and 
it needs policymakers and regulatory authorities and regulatory bodies 
that have some common sense.
  I worry about the FCC and the decisions they are about to make. At 
the FCC, we need a full complement of commissioners, and we need this 
slot filled--not tomorrow, not next week, not next year. We need this 
slot filled now. We must find a way to overcome this logjam on 
nominations. I am only speaking of this one because it is really 
important in terms of telecommunication policy and future opportunities 
and economic growth in rural States. In the coming days and weeks, as 
we reconvene following the election--which I understand will now be the 
week of November 12--my hope is we can find a way to clear these 
nominations. I know Senator Daschle understands that and has tried to 
do that. The Senate should do this, clear this nomination and other 
nominations that have been waiting on the calendar for some long while.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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