[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 19]
[Senate]
[Pages 25849-25851]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             E-RATE PROGRAM

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, as we are awaiting the final 
moments of this session of Congress, there are deliberations going on 
in the Capitol about an agreement to come forth with legislation--my 
understanding, already passed by the House--that will allow Internet 
service to be provided to schools and libraries. This is the very 
popular and widely acclaimed E-Rate Program that had been set up back 
in the nineties. The idea was that we lower the cost of providing 
Internet to schools and libraries so that students who would not 
otherwise have an opportunity of experience on the Internet would be 
able to get it at school.
  I visited such a school last week in Tallahassee, FL. It is a school 
that is state of the art in all of the electronic provisions but yet, 
as part of the school system of that county, Leon County, is able to 
afford it because virtually all of their schools do have the Internet 
provided. This particular school, Roberts Elementary, in a rural 
section outside of Tallahassee in Leon County, has a diverse student 
population. It spans the socioeconomic spectrum and, indeed, there are 
a number of students at this school who, if they did not have Internet 
experience at school, would not have the opportunity to learn how to 
use the Internet and have available to them the services on the 
Internet.
  The long and short of it is we would be depriving, because of 
socioeconomic status, a significant part of our student population an 
equal opportunity to an education, and that is a standard we all hold 
up as something that is worthwhile to strive for.
  It all comes down to tonight. The E-Rate Program is going to stop, 
not because there is any diabolical movement here to take it away, 
because there certainly is not--it is widely acclaimed and widely 
popular--but because of a new accounting glitch in one of our agencies. 
I won't go into the details of this new method of accounting. It is, in 
essence, saying you are going to have to take away the fund that would 
supply the Internet to schools at a reduced rate. The alternative to 
that is--and this is not a very palatable alternative--that telephone 
rates for the Universal Service Program are going to go up to provide 
this money to continue to provide Internet service to schools and 
libraries.
  It can all be taken care of so easily--and I do not know of any 
disagreement on the substance of the issue--if we pass this bill 
tonight. It is my understanding there are a couple of Senators who have 
a hold on this for completely different reasons unrelated to any of 
this subject matter. There are discussions going on in this U.S. 
Capitol Building right now over the lifting of those objections so at 
the last few minutes, the clock is showing, of this session of the 
Senate, we can take up the House bill and pass it. That is all we have 
to do and do it by unanimous consent with no objections.
  If we do not do this tonight, then we are going to have to come back 
and go through the whole process again--pass it in the House, pass it 
in the Senate--and in the meantime have schools such as Roberts 
Elementary in Tallahassee, FL, be concerned whether they are going to 
have an e-rate, at the same time threatening telephone subscribers by 
thinking their bills are going to go up in order to pay for this 
worthwhile program, and none of that is necessary.
  I call on cooler heads to prevail and allow this program that is so 
necessary for the education of so many of our children to achieve that 
objective we all embrace, which is an equal opportunity for an 
education for all children.
  Before I yield the floor, Mr. President, I see the Senator from 
Montana has just come in. Just so I may inform him, I have just given 
this Senator's impassioned plea for the E-Rate Program and why we need 
to pass this bill tonight. I have laid out the reasons, and I want the 
Senator from Montana to know a specific example of a school I visited 
last Friday, Roberts Elementary in Tallahassee, FL.
  The Senator well knows not only universal service and the importance 
of universal service to the rural areas of his State, as I do with 
mine--no matter how long the lines are that have to be run out there--
but that in that Universal Service Program is this funding mechanism 
for providing Internet service to schools and libraries.
  The final point I wish to make for the Senator, who missed my remarks 
earlier, is that this is so important because there are many students 
whose families cannot afford Internet at home, and, therefore, their 
only experience of this is going to be getting it at school. That was 
clearly evident to me at Roberts Elementary in Tallahassee, FL.
  It is my hope that now with the mellifluous and golden tones coming 
forth from the Senator from Montana, that he would bring us some good 
news about the negotiations of passing this bill tonight.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.

[[Page 25850]]


  Mr. BURNS. I appreciate what Senator Nelson had to say, also, on this 
legislation. This Congress should not go sine die without passing these 
three pieces of legislation. All three of them are very important. In 
fact, I would say the E-911, the enhanced 911 bill, is probably the 
most glaring public safety legislation we have worked on in many years. 
One would think this legislation that says we are going to take the 
money that is collected and it has to be spent in our PSAPS--in other 
words, our communications centers--to upgrade their technology, so that 
when a 9-1-1 call comes in from a cell phone we can locate the caller. 
We have that in wired lines, but we do not have it so much in wireless 
phones. I think it is time that we do that.
  This is a great piece of public safety legislation, and we have been 
working on it for about 4 years. One would think that would be a no-
brainer. It took us long enough to pass legislation to make a 9-1-1 
call go into the nearest first responder. It used to be if one was out 
of their home territory and their phone was in roam, they could dial 9-
1-1 and they were apt to get the 600 Cafe in Miles City, MT. That does 
not do one a lot of good when they are on the outskirts of Tallahassee, 
FL. It did not know where to go, and now it does.
  So we think this is very important legislation. The E-911 caucus was 
established by folks who work in public safety and public 
communications every day. We keep hearing what we should be doing about 
our communications systems in our cities, but how does a fire 
department communicate with the police department, with the highway 
patrol, and with the Federal agencies? Well, not very good. We have the 
technology there for them to do it, and folks want to do it. The only 
thing we lack is the funds.
  This says take those funds that are collected--when we all pay our 
phone bill, there is a little checkoff there around 50 cents that goes 
to emergency telephone technologies. Well, guess what. We sent the 
money to the States. The States balanced their budgets, but they did 
not spend the money upgrading their communications centers. We think 
that is just terrible. That is why this legislation needs passing. 
There is no objection to it. It has passed this body. It has passed the 
House of Representatives.
  Now, for those who do not think they have a dog in this fight and 
they live in a rural area, take a look at another part of it, which is 
the Universal Service and Anti-Deficiency Act exemption. This money was 
collected in universal service for a specific purpose, and it should be 
used for a specific purpose. It is very simple to do the right thing 
and do it right now. What has happened is they have found some abuse, a 
little fraud, so across the country they shut down making their 
payments to every school and library on the E-rate. It affects over 70 
cities and schools in my State alone.
  I come from Montana, and in eastern Montana we have a lot of dirt 
between light bulbs. It is expensive trying to bring the new 
technologies to smaller schools to upgrade their technologies to take 
advantage of distance learning. Sometimes it is telemedicine. We know 
that we have an aging population, a rural population. They are getting 
older every day. We have to administer our health care in a different 
way. This also affects that.
  Again, for this body and this Congress, this is an absolute no-
brainer. I realize that these are not issues that are great, sexy 
issues that one will find above the fold in their newspaper, but this 
is very important at the community level and to the folks who have kids 
in schools in rural areas. It is important to the infrastructure from 
which they learn and receive goods, and most of all health care.
  Also, the spectrum relocation bill is in here, too--again, a no-
brainer. What do we want? What do we hear from our first responders? We 
need spectrum. We need emergency spectrum. We need that spectrum so 
that we can deploy new technologies as broadband.
  Years ago, we used to hear a signal and we knew it was either 
television, a picture, a voice, or data. We could differentiate from 
the signal what it was.
  We are in a different kind of a world now. It does not make any 
difference if it is data, audio, video, whatever. It is all ones and 
zeros. It is all digital. So now we do not talk about what kind of a 
signal. We talk about bandwidth, bytes, megabytes, gigabytes. We talk 
about this ability to move information, no matter what it is, at the 
speed of light through fiberoptics and even our new wireless 
technologies.
  What do they say? We have to have spectrum. Even in my State of 
Montana, we can now take the computers that we see used by the clerk in 
this body, and with a little card in there, get on the Internet driving 
down the highway. It is not the fastest right now. It is around 56K, 
but these are the first steps to broadband wireless services that will 
be deployed in areas where it is very expensive to string a line.
  All three of these issues are wrapped together in this package that 
should be passed, and there is no issue that is important enough that 
can even stand up to the importance of these issues at the closing of 
or the eleventh hour of this Congress. Not one I can think of. And it 
is needed.
  Enhanced 911 services--we have already gone over that.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. BURNS. I will yield.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. I commend the Senator for his leadership on 
this issue. Just to back up, about what the Senator was saying, I have 
a letter to the leadership of both the House and Senate signed by 34 
Senators, bipartisan, pleading that we pass these items.
  So I ask the Senator, with this kind of broad support--there is 
really no opposition to the substance of this--what is holding it up, 
and what are the prospects in these final few minutes of this session 
of Congress that we are going to be able to disgorge this tonight?
  Mr. BURNS. I say to the Senator, I don't know exactly what is going 
on. We know some of the things, but I do not think that is material 
here. I am just pleading that it gets done. Let's look at the 
importance of this and our priorities and let's finish our work and go 
home. To my knowledge, there is not anything any more important than 
that we finish this, for the simple reason we have schools and 
libraries now that are receiving no payments. There are no payments 
until we pass this legislation. With the support of the administration 
we should be moving this legislation.
  There are some who think it should be an appropriated account. It was 
never in an appropriated account. This money was not collected as 
taxes. It was collected for a particular purpose.
  So I say, they signed the letter. My colleague from Florida is 
exactly right, and the Senators who signed the letter are exactly 
right.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Will the Senator further yield for a question?
  Mr. BURNS. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I thank the Senator. I ask the 
Senator regarding the objection that is being raised, what is the 
chance that that objection will be lifted and that we will be able 
tonight to pass this legislation that is so needed?
  Mr. BURNS. I tell my good friend from Florida that negotiations are 
currently underway.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Very good.
  Mr. BURNS. We are talking. I think we are going to get this resolved.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Then, I say to the Senator, Godspeed.
  Mr. BURNS. I want to say something. The Senator from Florida has been 
working with my cochair. The cochair on the Internet caucus is Senator 
Clinton from New York. I will tell the Senator, the Senator from New 
York has just been an absolute champion on this because she understands 
upstate New York and she understands her rural areas. She doesn't just 
understand downtown New York. That might be the political base but, 
nonetheless, when she was elected as a Senator she all at once 
realized, and came to me and said: I have a rural area that I have to 
serve.
  She has been very diligent. She has worked very hard, especially on 
the other side of the aisle.

[[Page 25851]]

  I appreciate the contribution of the Senator from Florida, and I 
thank Senator Clinton for her cosponsorship and her work, as well as 
many other colleagues who have worked with me--Senator Lott, Senator 
Frist, Senator Sununu, and many others who worked to improve this 
legislation. They, too, place it very high on the priority list of 
items that should be passed before we go home. The cochairs of the E-
911 caucus, Representative Shimkus and Representative Eshoo in the 
House, who have been tireless advocates, along with Representative Chip 
Pickering and many other Representatives--Joe Barton has been a 
champion on this issue. We have been working on E-911 issues for many 
years now, and we all agree this is a good product and the final 
product we can have this year.
  Mr. President, E-911 services are about as clear an example as you 
can get of Congress acting in the public interest and in the interest 
of public safety as we could possibly have. If someone dials 9-1-1 from 
a cell phone, that person's location should be transmitted to a public 
safety answering point so the police, fire, or rescue first responders 
can know exactly not only what to do--they already know what to do--and 
where to go. How do we find this dialer of 9-1-1?
  When we first started to look at emergency services, we found out 
that 9-1-1 was not the national norm for an emergency number. We found 
many numbers, in many different areas. Basically, what we did was we 
nationalized 9-1-1. We said no matter where you are and what your 
circumstances are, 9-1-1 will be the national emergency number. So when 
we take a look at this, this technology will save lives. It is already 
saving lives. E-911 services are already being rolled out in this 
country, and this bill authorizes some more money, about $250 a year 
for 5 years in matching grants made to appropriate entities so that 
progress will occur more rapidly in the next phase of implementation of 
those two technologies.
  So I ask my colleagues to not only help us but to take these three 
essential parts of this piece of legislation and pass it, and let's 
send it to the President for his signature. I think that is about the 
best Christmas gift we could give to people who rely on emergency 
services.

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