[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 10712-10713]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        INTRODUCTION OF ``DIGITAL OPPORTUNITY INVESTMENT TRUST''

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 19, 2005

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to join my good friend and colleague 
Rep. Ralph Regula (R-OH) in introducing the ``Digital Opportunity 
Investment Trust Act.''
  Mr. Speaker, I have long believed that when the Federal 
Communications Commission decides to proceed with auctions as a means 
of granting licenses to the public's airwaves, that the public deserves 
to reap the benefits. These benefits should manifest themselves not 
only in the more rapid offering of new, competitive commercial wireless 
services or the deployment of technological innovations, but also in 
the ``dividends'' that can be reaped by re-investing the auction money 
wisely. The legislation we are introducing today, proposes taking 
auction revenue and creating a permanent trust fund in order to fund 
grants for public interest telecommunications initiatives. I believe 
harnessing this resource and re-investing it for such initiatives will 
be vital to our national economic security and for leaving to the next 
generation the cultural and educational assets of our great country in 
an accessible digital form.
  Mr. Speaker, ensuring that the research and development into the 
software and telecommunications tools that will animate the 
technologies for use in classrooms and workplaces around the country is 
a sound investment. Making available additional resources for public 
televisions and radio stations for their needs in the digital era is 
also vital. Finally, our nation's libraries, museums, universities are 
great repositories of information and possess the tremendous wealth of 
our cultural heritage. These treasurers can and ought to be digitized 
in a way that makes them accessible to all our citizens, both online 
and over-the-air using our national public broadcasting system. This 
will help to ensure we have an informed and skilled citizenry for our 
civic institutions. Putting these great educational resources at the 
heart of the technological transformation our society is undergoing 
will strengthen our democracy in fundamental ways.
  For all of these reasons, I believe we must rise to the challenge of 
funding advanced research and development for education and technology 
training in a way that reflects the urgent need to do so and the 
current, inadequate resources being put to these efforts. 
Telecommunications technology has an awesome potential to affect change 
positively by driving economic growth, preparing our citizens for the 
tough challenges ahead, and enriching our democracy. Yet without a 
plan, it will remain just that--merely the ``potential'' and 
``promise'' but not the reality. That's why I believe we ought to 
reinvest the auction resources we obtain from winning bidders to the 
public's airways. A permanent trust fund built from these funds will go 
a long way in meeting the need and that is what our legislation is 
designed and intended to do.

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