[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 148 (Wednesday, October 14, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H11305]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             NET NEUTRALITY

  (Mr. Gene Green of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise to point out a timely 
editorial on net neutrality that ran recently in The Washington Post, 
and I'll submit it for the Record, ``The FCC's Heavy Hand,'' that ran 
on Monday, September 28, 2009. This editorial makes good points, but 
the bottom line is one I have been making since this issue came up so 
many years ago. The broadband marketplace has been, is, and will remain 
one of the most competitive areas in our economy.
  Today, if you don't like your cable Internet, you switch to your 
phone company service. If you need mobility you can't get from your 
wire-line phone company, you purchase a wireless broadband plan. If you 
don't like one wireless provider's broadband plan, you ask the guy 
sitting next to you surfing the Web in the park who he uses for their 
wireless broadband, and you switch to that company.
  Why do we have options? Because broadband companies have invested 
billions of dollars to build the best networks they can to attract as 
many customers as they can. Why would they block applications or 
content when they know the customer they're interfering with could just 
switch to another provider? They won't, as long as that customer isn't 
harming the network.
  Mr. Speaker, the contrast is here. We should look at why the 
government needs to do such as addressing health care, and prices are 
spiraling out of control. Tens of millions of Americans have no choice 
on health care and having insurance, whereas, in the broadband market, 
there is plenty of competition and companies are competing. There could 
not be a more stark contrast for where government must act, and where 
competition in the marketplace is benefiting consumers, driving 
investment, and creating jobs. Further regulation is not the answer to 
keeping the Internet open; fostering competition and investment in 
broadband infrastructure is.

                          ____________________