[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 10668]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                      BROADBAND TAX INCENTIVE BILL

  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I rise to today in support of a bill I 
introduced last week along with my friend Senator Moynihan and 26 other 
members on both sides of the aisle. The bill, S. 2698, the Broadband 
Internet Access Act of 2000, crates tax incentives for the deployment 
of broadband (high-speed) Internet services to rural, low-income, and 
residential areas.
  This bill will ensure that all Americans gain timely and equitable 
access to the Internet over current and future generations of broadband 
capability.
  The legislation provides graduated tax credits to companies that 
bring qualified telecommunication capabilities to targeted areas. It 
grants a 10-percent credit for expenditures on equipment that provide a 
bandwidth of 1.5 million bits per second (mbps) to subscribes in rural 
and low-income areas, and a 20-percent credit for delivery of 22 mbps 
to these customers and other residential subscribers.
  This bill has been endorsed by a number of organizations, including 
Bell Atlantic, MCI/Worldcom, Corning Incorporated, the National 
Telephone Cooperative Association, the Association for Local 
Telecommunications Services, the United States Distance Learning 
Association, and the Imaging Science and Information Systems Center at 
Georgetown University Medical Center.
  Mr. President, in a few short years, the Internet has grown 
exponentially to become a mass medium used daily by over 100 million 
people worldwide. The explosion of information technology has created 
opportunities undreamed of by previous generations. In my home state of 
Montana, companies such as Healthdirectory.com and Vanns.com are taking 
advantage of the global markets made possible by the stunning reach of 
the Internet.
  The pace of broadband deployment to rural America must be accelerated 
for electronic commerce to meet its full potential, however. Broadband 
access is an important to our small businesses in Montana as water is 
to agribusiness.
  I am aware of all of the recent discussion regarding the ``digital 
divide'' and I am very concerned that the pace of broadband deployment 
is greater in urban than rural areas. However, there is some positive 
and exciting news on this front as well. The reality on the ground 
shows that some of the ``gloom and doom'' scenarios are far from the 
case. By pooling their limited resources, Montana's independent and 
cooperative telephone companies are doing great things. I encourage my 
colleagues to support this bill.

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