    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [February 8, 1996]
    [Pages 185-188]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Signing the Telecommunications Act of 1996
    February 8, 1996

        Thank you very much. Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of
    Congress, and ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to begin by thanking the
    Library of Congress for hosting us here. It's my understanding this may
    be the only time in American history a piece of legislation has

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    been signed here and perhaps the first time in three decades when one
    has been signed on Capitol Hill. If that is so, then this is certainly a
    worthy occasion.
        I thank Lily Tomlin for reminding us that the Internet can be fun--
    [laughter]--and the students at Calvin Coolidge for reminding us that
    the Internet can do a world of good. I thank the Vice President, who
    fought for this bill for so long on behalf of the American people. And I
    thank the Members of Congress in both parties, starting with the
    leadership, who believed in the promise and the possibility of
    telecommunications reform. I thank the vast array of interest groups who
    had sometimes conflicting concerns about this bill who were able to work
    together and work through them so that we could move this together.
        This law is truly revolutionary legislation that will bring the
    future to our doorstep. In the State of the Union just a few days ago, I
    asked the Congress to pass this law, and they did with remarkable speed
    and dispatch. Even the years that were spent working on it were a
    relatively short time given the tradition of congressional
    decisionmaking over major matters.
        This historic legislation in my way of thinking really embodies what
    we ought to be about as a country and what we ought to be about in this
    city. It clearly enables the age of possibility in America to expand to
    include more Americans. It will create many, many high-wage jobs. It
    will provide for more information and more entertainment to virtually
    every American home. It embodies our best values by supporting the kind
    of market reforms that the Vice President mentioned, as well as the V-
    chip. And it brings us together, and it was passed by people coming
    together. This bill is an indication of what can be done when
    Republicans and Democrats work together in a spirit of genuine
    cooperation to advance the public interest and bring us to a brighter
    future.
        It is fitting that we mark this moment here in the Library of
    Congress. It is Thomas Jefferson's building. Most of you know President
    Jefferson deeded his books to our young Nation after our first library
    was burned to the ground in the War of 1812. The volumes that line these
    walls grew out of Jefferson's legacy. He understood that democracy
    depends upon the free flow of information. He said, ``He who receives an
    idea from me receives instruction himself without lessening mine. And he
    who lights his paper at mine receives light without darkening me.''
        Today, the information revolution is spreading light, the light
    Jefferson spoke about, all across our land and all across the world. It
    will allow every American child to bring the ideas stored in this
    reading room into his or her own living room or schoolroom.
        Americans have always had a genius for communications. The power of
    our Founding Fathers' words reverberated across the world from the
    moment they were said down to the present day. From the Pony Express to
    the miracle of a human voice over the phone line, American innovation
    and communications have broken the barriers of time and space to make it
    easier for us to stay in touch, to learn from each other, to reach for
    our highest aspirations.
        Today our world is being remade yet again by an information
    revolution, changing the way we work, the way we live, the way we relate
    to each other. Already the revolution is so profound that it is changing
    the dominant economic model of the age. And already, thanks to the
    scientific and entrepreneurial genius of American workers in this
    country, it has created vast, vast opportunities for us to grow and
    learn and enrich ourselves in body and in spirit.
        But this revolution has been held back by outdated laws designed for
    a time when there was one phone company, three TV networks, no such
    thing as a personal computer. Today, with the stroke of a pen, our laws
    will catch up with our future. We will help to create an open
    marketplace where competition and innovation can move as quick as light.
    An industry that is already one-sixth of our entire economy will thrive.
    It will create opportunity, many more high-wage jobs, and better lives
    for all Americans. Soon, working parents will be able to check up on
    their children in class via computer. Families heading off on vacation
    trips will be able to program the fastest route in their car computers,
    thanks to the work the Department of Transportation is now doing. On a
    rainy Saturday night, you'll be able to order up every movie ever
    produced or every symphony ever created in a minute's time. For those of
    us who like to watch too many movies and listen to too much music in a
    single sitting, that may be a mixed blessing.
        This law also recognizes that with freedom comes responsibility. Any
    truly competitive market requires rules. This bill protects consumers

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    against monopolies. It guarantees the diversity of voices our democracy
    depends upon. Perhaps most of all, it enhances the common good. Under
    this law, our schools, our libraries, our hospitals will receive
    telecommunication services at reduced cost. This simple act will move us
    one giant step closer to realizing a challenge I put forward in the
    State of the Union to connect all our classrooms and libraries to the
    information superhighway by the year 2000, not through a big Government
    program but through a creative, ever-unfolding partnership led by
    scientists and entrepreneurs, supported by business and government and
    communities working together.
        We know the information age will bring blessings for our people and
    our country. But like most human blessings, we know the blessings will
    be mixed. We also know that the programming beamed into our homes can
    undercut our values and make it more difficult for parents to raise
    their children.
        Children sometimes are exposed to images parents don't want them to
    see because they shouldn't. A comprehensive study released just
    yesterday confirms what every parent knows: Televised violence is
    pervasive and numbing, and if exposed constantly to it, young people can
    develop a numbing, lasting, corrosive reaction to it. Televised violence
    in too much volume and intensity over too long a period of time may
    teach our children that such violence has no consequences and is an
    unavoidable part of modern life. Neither is true.
        In my State of the Union Address, when I asked Congress to pass the
    telecommunications law, I mentioned in particular the V-chip designed to
    strengthen families and their ability to protect their children from
    television violence and other inappropriate programs as they determine.
    I am very proud that this new legislation includes the V-chip. It's not
    such a big requirement, as you can see--here is one--but it can make a
    big difference in the lives of families all over America.
        I thank the Congress and the Members of both parties for giving
    parents who want to take more responsibility for their children's
    upbringing an important tool to do so. I thank the Congress for reducing
    the chances that the hours spent in church or synagogue or in discussion
    around the dinner table about right and wrong and what can and cannot
    happen in the world will not be undone by unthinking hours in front of a
    television set.
        Of course, parents now have to do their end of the job and decide
    what they do or don't want their young children to see. But if every
    parent uses this chip wisely, it can become a powerful voice against
    teen violence, teen pregnancy, teen drug use, and for both learning and
    entertainment. The responsibility of parents to do this is something
    they deserve and something they plainly need. Now that they have it,
    they must use it.
        I want to acknowledge in this audience the activists, the parents
    who pushed for the V-chip and thank you very much for making it
    possible.
        To make the V-chip as effective as it can be, I have challenged the
    broadcast industries to do what the movies have done, to rate
    programming in a way that will help the parents to make these decisions.
    I invited the entertainment industry leaders to come to the White House
    to work with me to improve what our children see on television, and I'm
    pleased to announce that exactly 3 weeks from today, on February 29th,
    we will convene our meeting and get to work. I thank the leaders of the
    entertainment industry for coming, and I will look forward to working
    with them.
        In 1957, President Eisenhower signed another important bill into
    law, another bill that was like this. It seized the opportunities of the
    moment. It made them more broadly available to all Americans. It met the
    challenge of change. It reinforced our fundamental values and
    aspirations. And it was done in a harmonious, bipartisan spirit. The
    interstate highway act literally brought Americans closer together. We
    were connected city to city, town to town, family to family, as we had
    never been before. That law did more to bring Americans together than
    any other law this century, and that same spirit of connection and
    communication is the driving force behind the Telecommunications Act of
    1996.
        When President Eisenhower signed the highway bill, he gave one of
    his pens to the father of that legislation, Senator Albert Gore, Sr., of
    Tennessee. His son, the Vice President, in many ways is the father of
    this legislation because he's worked on it for more than 20 years, since
    he first began to promote what he called, in the phrase he coined, the
    information superhighway.

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        You heard him say today that he always dreamed that a child from his
    little hometown of Carthage could come home from school and be able to
    connect to the Library of Congress. I'm proud that the Vice President is
    able to be here today and to play the role he deserves to play in this.
    And I thank all the others who have done this. But 2 days ago, I asked
    him if he would give me the pen that his father got from President
    Eisenhower to begin the signing of this legislation. And so, that is the
    very nice pen you see.
        Mr. Speaker, I don't know what we can do about this in a bipartisan
    manner, but I'm afraid that people would say that in the fifties, that's
    the time when people in Washington were real leaders and pens were real
    pens. [Laughter]
        At any rate, I'm going to begin, in honor of Senator Gore, Sr., and
    Vice President Gore, the signing with that pen that President Eisenhower
    used to sign the interstate highway act, and then go on with the
    signing. And again, let me say to all of you, I wish every person here
    who has played a role in this could have one of these pens. I am very,
    very grateful to you.
        And then after I sign the actual bill, we're going to sign a copy of
    the bill over here and send it into cyberspace. I believe that this is
    the first bill that ever made that journey, and that will make me
    whatever it was Ernestine said, a cybernaut, or whatever she said.
    [Laughter]
        Again, let me thank you from the bottom of my heart, every one of
    you, for making this great day for America possible.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:34 a.m. in the Thomas Jefferson Building
    of the Library of Congress. In his remarks, he referred to comedian Lily
    Tomlin, who portrayed her character Ernestine the telephone operator in
    a dialog with the Vice President. S. 652, approved February 8, was
    assigned Public Law No. 104-104.