[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8734-8735]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1730
                GOVERNMENT OVERREACH ON SMALL BUSINESSES

  (Mr. CRAMER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CRAMER. Mr. Speaker, in the last few months more than 175 Members 
of Congress from both parties and both Chambers have expressed concerns 
about the FCC's proposed set-top box rules. Even the Small Business 
Administration has weighed in with concerns about how these rules could 
burden small operators.
  Last month, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Schrader) and I authored a 
bipartisan letter signed by 59 of our colleagues that says, in part: 
``the proposal threatens the economic welfare of small pay-TV companies 
providing both vital communications services to rural areas and 
competitive alternatives to consumers in urban markets.''
  Mr. Speaker, if continued innovation in the video industry is the 
goal, then this proposed rule is the wrong direction. In fact, it is 
estimated that this rule could cost up to a million dollars or more per 
system. Now, a million dollars may not be a lot to a big company, but 
to most of the companies in rural North Dakota, it could be the 
difference between staying in business or going out of business.

[[Page 8735]]

  I also have strong concerns that the proposed rules are outside the 
Commission's legal authority. Instead of getting into another lengthy 
legal battle with Congress, I urge Chairman Wheeler and the FCC to drop 
these proposed rules because of the harm it could inflict on small 
rural operators.

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