    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [August 1, 1995]
    [Page 1191]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Statement on Proposed Telecommunications Reform Legislation
    August 1, 1995

        My administration is committed to enactment of a telecommunications
    reform bill in this Congress. Such legislation is needed to stimulate
    investment, promote competition, provide open access to information
    networks, strengthen and improve universal service, and provide for
    flexible regulations for this important industry. Consumers should
    receive the benefits of lower prices, better quality, and greater
    choices in their telephone and cable services, and they should continue
    to benefit from a diversity of voices and viewpoints in radio,
    television, and the print media.
        Unfortunately, H.R. 1555, as reported by the Commerce Committee and
    amended by the managers' amendment, does not reach any of these goals.
    Instead of promoting investment and competition, it promotes mergers and
    concentration of power. Instead of promoting open access and diversity
    of content and viewpoints, it would allow fewer people to control
    greater numbers of television, radio, and newspaper outlets in every
    community.
        H.R. 1555 with the managers' amendment would:
        --allow a single owner to acquire television stations that can reach
    50 percent of the Nation;
        --allow the acquisition of an unlimited number of radio stations in
    every community and across the Nation;
        --repeal the newspaper/broadcast and broadcast/cable cross-ownership
    bans that currently exist;
        --permit the Bell Operating Companies to offer long distance service
    before there is real competition in local service, with less-than-
    minimum structural safeguards and without requiring a determination by
    the Department of Justice that entry will not impede competition;
        --allow an excessive number of in-region buyouts between telephone
    companies and cable operators, substituting consolidation for
    competition and leaving consumers in rural areas and small towns with no
    rate protection in most cases and no foreseeable expectation of
    competition;
        --deregulate cable programming services and equipment rates before
    cable operators face real competition and without providing any consumer
    protection provision after deregulation;
        --preempt the States from implementing certain rate regulation
    schemes and opening their local phone markets to certain types of
    competition as they choose; and
        --not include the V-chip proposal the Senate adopted.
        The cumulative effect of these provisions would be to harm
    competition and to weaken the benefits to the public. If H.R. 1555 with
    the managers' amendment is sent to me without deletion or revision of a
    significant number of these provisions I will be compelled to veto it in
    the best interests of the public and our national economic well-being.