[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9280]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



               ASSURING INTERNET ACCESS FOR ALL AMERICANS

  (Mr. WELLER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WELLER. Mr. Speaker, over 100 million Americans today have access 
to the Internet. Seven million new Americans each second access the 
Internet for the first time. It is a tremendous opportunity, 
particularly for school children, to use the Internet for their school 
work and homework; but unfortunately, some are left behind.
  If you look at who has access to the Internet, you see the higher the 
income of the household, the more likely they have Internet access at 
home. Low-income families say the cost of Internet access is the chief 
barrier to their children having the opportunity to use the Internet 
and have a computer at home.

                              {time}  1545

  Mr. Speaker, I am so proud of the leadership that this House has 
shown this year in removing those barriers to Internet access. We are 
making a choice: do we want the information superhighway to be a toll 
way or a freeway?
  Just this spring, in less than 1 month, we have eliminated three toll 
booths on the information superhighway. Number one, we extended for 5 
years the Internet tax moratorium, putting a road block in the way of 
anyone who wants to impose a tax on Internet access.
  Second, just 2 weeks ago, we eliminated the FCC's authority to impose 
fees and taxes on Internet access; and I am proud today that we 
eliminated the century-old 3 percent tax on telephone calls. We are 
removing those toll booths because we want to give greater digital 
opportunity for all Americans.

                          ____________________