[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 21262]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                      RURAL LOAN GUARANTEE PROGRAM

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, as a conferee last year on the satellite 
television bill, I worked hard to include, along with several of my 
colleagues, a provision that would have ensured that the benefits of 
that bill would also be shared by rural Americans through a loan 
guarantee program.
  Those benefits include providing local-into-local television over 
satellite--which simply means that rural Americans would be able to 
receive their local network stations over satellite if they owned a 
satellite dish, along with the full range of weather, movie, 
superstation, sports and a host of other channels.
  We wanted to ensure that rural Americans would get the same level of 
television service over satellite as urban Americas would enjoy.
  As it turns out, urban Americans can now receive the full array of 
local network channels over satellite--but the great majority of rural 
Americans can not.
  Unfortunately, the Chairman of the Banking Committee objected to the 
provision--at the end of last year--that would have helped finance such 
service to rural areas and we have been unable to resolve this matter.
  At the time I was very worried this would happen which is why I 
discussed it at some length on the floor.
  I want to stress, once again, to all of my colleagues that this is 
very important to our constituents. We need to work together so that we 
can resolve this problem and make sure that rural America is not left 
in the dark.
  I am here today, to again stand with rural Americans. I have already 
mentioned on the floor several times that if we tried to hold a 
Conference on this issue that we would be unable to pass the bill this 
year.
  I said few weeks ago that we simply do not have time to go through 
the formal Conference process. The e-signature Conference, for example, 
took many months. As I have warned everyone before--we do not have time 
for a Conference.
  However, if we work together we can easily finish a bill that will 
actually work and get local television stations carried over satellite.
  With a few improvements to the House-passed or to the Senate-passed 
bills we can get this job done for rural America.
  We need to make sure that the federal guarantee can cover providing 
high-speed Internet access to rural Americans. As long as we are going 
to help finance a satellite we should get the biggest benefit out of it 
by having it also help break down the digital divide.
  Also, some of the bill provisions consist of such atypical, and 
onerous, credit requirement that I do not think that any lenders will 
want to participate.
  I have two basic concerns with the proposed language, and have 
serious concerns about the extraneous House provisions on cell 
telephones and the like.
  I also understand through lobbyists that efforts are being made to 
include language that would take away FCC authority to approve the new 
``Northpoint'' technology that could provide local-into-local 
television in many areas of the country. My understanding is that some 
of the satellite providers are concerned that Northpoint could compete 
with them.
  In terms of the credit provisions of the bill, I am worried that 
potential borrowers may have long-term existing contractural 
obligations or security agreements whose contract terms would be 
abrogated by this law if they were to participate in this loan 
guarantee program.
  If they received a guaranteed loan under the bill, their lenders 
could pull back existing credit lines for violating their contracts by 
complying with the new law.
  With respect to the default language, even a minor default could lead 
to liquidation which would reduce the ability of the United States to 
protects its own interests and, in addition, could trigger unnecessary 
defaults on loans or projects which the borrower may have with the 
United States, or other lenders.
  The additional problem with the superpriority bankruptcy language is 
that it is a backdoor ``taking'' of property because it would take the 
property rights of creditors that have other prior perfected security 
interests in the borrower's property.
  These contract property rights--which would be destroyed after the 
fact--could be very valuable and the bill could take them away.
  Mr. President, I have provided language to most interested offices 
some months ago to resolve these points which may appear at first blush 
to be technical but, in fact, could make it impossible for this program 
to work.
  I have also proposed language to ensure that rural Americans are able 
to receive high-speed Internet access under this bill. The section on 
prerequisites for the loan does not list high-speed Internet access as 
a purpose for the guarantee.
  I recommend adding ``high-speed Internet access'' to that section so 
that the Board could approve a guarantee which would include that 
purpose, as a secondary consideration.
  I have pointed out before on the Senate floor that, ``computers are 
on a development path that improves performance by a factor of 10 every 
five years,'' according to Scientific American.
  However, without high-speed linkage of these constantly improving 
computers rural America will be left behind.
  In America, there is a growing disparity between the digital 
``haves'' and ``have-nots'' as portions of our society get left behind 
at the same lightning pace at which the Internet develops.
  I would like the bill changed so that we can close the ``digital 
divide'' that keeps rural America from fully participating in America's 
economic boom under President Clinton.
  I know that some are fighting to keep this disparity--but this 
disparity between rural and urban America is self-defeating as the 
Internet becomes an increasingly important thread of our business and 
social fabric.
  So I hope all my colleagues will join with me in working together to 
get this program in operation before Congress goes out of session.

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