Barton: Video Franchising Bill Markup

"We have an opportunity to increase competition not only for cable services, but to also unleash a race for who can supply the fastest, most-sophisticated broadband connections that will provide video, voice, and data services"

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, made the following statement today during the Telecommunications and the Internet subcommittee markup entitled "Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006."

"Mr. Chairman, thank you for beginning this markup today. This evening, we will hear opening statements from our Members. Tomorrow, we will review and vote on amendments to the committee print.

"We come to the markup stage of this process after more than a year of hearings as well as both staff- and Member-level negotiations. The process has been long, it has been frustrating, it has been fair and it has been productive.

"Last week, we heard from a diverse array of witnesses regarding the committee print before us today. We had a lot of input from a lot of different stakeholders and we listened to that.

"The stakes are high. We are standing, I believe, on the threshold of a new age in communications. To me it's plain that the 1996 Telecommunications Act served its purpose, but this is a different era. It says something about our economy and our innovation and the entrepreneurs in this country that it took 50 years between the first communications act and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and we're back within a decade.

"We have an opportunity to increase competition not only for cable services, but to also unleash a race for who can supply the fastest, most-sophisticated broadband connections that will provide video, voice, and data services. This race will only benefit consumers.

"The primary focus of this legislation is to streamline and federalize the cable franchising process in our nation. Today, there are thousands of local franchising authorities, and each may impose disparate restrictions on the provision of cable service in its local franchising area. The requirement to negotiate each local franchises, and the patchwork of obligations local franchising authorities impose, are hindering the deployment of advanced broadband networks in the United States. The U.S. is not even in the top ten in the world community in terms of broadband deployment. I think that's a travesty and we need to do something about it.

"The committee print seeks to address this concern and strike the right balance between national standards and local oversight. The committee print also seeks to strike the right balance between ensuring that the public Internet remains open and vibrant and also ensuring that Congress does not hand the FCC a blank check to regulate Internet services, an action that I believe would have a chilling affect on broadband deployment and, especially, broadband innovation.

"We are going to have a manager's amendment tomorrow. This manager's amendment that Mr. Upton is going to offer will beef up the enforcement tools at the FCC's disposal to address violations of the FCC's broadband policy. The manager's amendment is also going to increase fines for violations and have a 'shot clock' to require the FCC to take action when action is needed. The committee print and the manager's amendment are going to address special rules for VoIP providers to ensure that Internet voice services become a vibrant competitor to plain old telephone services. We also want to make sure that several other things are taken care of. So we are working with a number of members on those very limited number of amendments that we plan to debate and probably accept at the markup tomorrow.

"I want to thank Chairman Upton, Mr. Pickering, my vice-chairman of the full committee, Mr. Rush, our Democratic sponsor, and Mr. Dingell and Mr. Markey, who have negotiated with us on this legislation. Even though they don't support the end product, there are many elements in the bill that are there at their request or that were made better because of their input. I look forward to a full and frank markup tomorrow and a positive vote late tomorrow afternoon or evening. It is my intention to go to full committee with the work product of the subcommittee the first week that we're back after our next district work period - which will be about two and one half weeks from now."

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