|
Our Chronological View. The Latest: August 2nd, 2001 Tauzin-Dingell to Take a Vacation until September. From this PM's Congressional Daily, 8/1/01 House Majority Leader Armey today singled out high speed Internet access legislation as likely to come to the House floor when the House returns in September from the August recess. "We expect and you should expect to see the broadband bill on the schedule in September," Armey said. "Work is proceeding nicely and, although there is some fine print to be worked out, I would expect that bill to be on the floor in September." Armey said the so-called Tauzin-Dingell bill was not yet ready, but praised House Energy and Commerce Chairman Tauzin for his "generosity of spirit, his willingness to work with people." Armey also said presidential trade negotiating authority would likely have to wait until September as well, while saying the House might also take up a prescription drug bill and perhaps Medicare reform following the August recess. States News Service , June 19, 2001 Telephone companies looking to benefit from legislation written by U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin picked up the tab on three trips the Chackbay Republican took last year. June 24th On Sunday, June24th, at 1PM, Pulver.com has arranged a rock concert and protest on the steps of the Capitol in Washington. Go to the link for more details. CANNON-CONYERS UPDATE: For those following the events unfold, the bills by Reps. Cannon-Conyers never made it out of committee and are no longer under consideration. June 14th, 2001, Good news telecom fans.... Tauzin-Dingell Takes A Hit In Judiciary Committee, Newsbytes 6/13/2001 "The House Judiciary Committee today put its stamp of disapproval on controversial broadband deregulation, sending it to the House floor with an amendment to try to cripple the bill. The committee in a voice vote said it would forward the bill with a so-called "negative referral" to the full House." Bad, Embarrassing Move: Consumer Union has lost its way and doesn't seem to understand that the Bill ultimately bad for customers. Consumer Group Stops Lobbying Broadband Bill [SOURCE: Cnet, AUTHOR: Reuters] Consumers Union said on Friday it would stop lobbying against legislation that would allow local telephone giants to offer long-distance data services without opening their local networks to rivals, despite its continued opposition to the measure, sponsored by Reps. Billy Tauzin and John Dingell and. The organization, which was in the rare position of being on the same side as long-distance and cable behemoth AT&T Corp. , said it was pulling out because of recent price hikes by high-speed Internet, phone and cable providers. "Given the recent actions by industry players on both sides of the Tauzin-Dingell bill, we are choosing to remove ourselves from this debate for now," said Consumers Union spokesman David Butler. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Bell companies argue that they need more financial incentives to deliver on broadband. Right now the Bell's profits are 200% above most American companies --- and a great deal of the money came from Breaking promises to roll out Broadband. LINKS---You Decide Who's Telling the Truth --- Links to Reports, filings, lawsuits and articles about the Bells' failed broadband rollouts, customer and competitor harm---Thousands of pages, thousands of harmed customers and companies Week of June 11th, 2001 On Wednesday, June 13th, The House Judiciary Committee will be having a "mark-up" of the Tauzin-Dingell bill and the Cannon-Conyers bill. To hear the actual audio, click here COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY and scroll down. (It works only at the time of the event.) TIME: Start: 10:00 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn House Office Building TAKE ACTION : Contact Members of the Judiciary Committee to Block Tauzin-Dingell and Vote for C-Cubed. ================= From SMART Letter, 6/7/01, from Isen.com QUOTE OF NOTE -- William Kennard "H.R. 1542 is bullshit!" Former FCC Chair William E Kennard at Vortex, May 23, 2001. One man's bullshit is another entity's pork. H.R. 1542, a proposed law now before the U.S. Congress, is blatant pork for Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs). It would let ILECs do long-distance broadband services without opening their networks. In other words, it would repeal the keystone of the Telecom Act of 1996. Kennard succinctly expressed how the innovators I know feel about this bill. Officially, Vortex is off-the-record, so after Kennard's speech, I buttonholed him in the hall and asked if I could quote him. He graciously agreed, and added, "I spent too much of my life on the Telecom Act to see it destroyed( by H.R. 1542]" Fortunately, H.R. 1542 will be significantly slowed by the Jim Jeffords-induced change of power in the U.S. Senate. But don't relax; the ILECs will be back for another snort in the trough! ============================================================== Wednesday, June 6th, 2001 On June 5th, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing to discuss the "Tauzin-Dingell' Bill, HR 1542.
Week of May 28th:
NEW---TAKE ACTION : Contact Members of the Judiciary Committee to Block Tauzin-Dingell and Vote for C-Cubed. Here's the Skinny: Tauzin Dingell has 98 Reps signed up. There is another bill by Rep. Upton in the telecom-subcommittee which calls for some enforcement and penalties. Talk is it might be joined with Tauzin-Dingell to make it more palatable.... However, the enforcement bill has flaws according to Rep. Markey, and these bills should not be joined because it will make Tauzin easier to sign off on. Also, it will not really enforce the current laws because it does not fix the current FCC based problems with enforcement. Chairman Powell has been speaking of a $10 million fine per violation, but that's only carrier to carrier ---- phone company to phone company --- and today they do not have the staff or the will to do anything. On the good news front, the House has determined that Tauzin-Dingell must go through the Judiciary Committee, which is not favorable to these bills. To stop Tauzin-Dingell, there are two bills, Cannon-Conyers and Conyers-Cannon, We've dubbed them "C-Cubed" These are an attempt to move the telecom bills from the Commerce Committee to the Judiciary Committee. To date, the story is that these bills have only 3 Co-Sponsors. There was a hearing on Tuesday, 5/22, about the Bills, but the situation is not good. However, while Tauzin-Dingell may make it out of the House, because of the new regime on the Senate side, there is little chance of the bill just sailing through. The bottom line is that just killing Tauzin-Dingell doesn't fix the problems, and Tauzin-Dingell will just come back since Tauzin is the head of the committee, and Dingell is the next ranking Democrat.) Here's the Hearing held by the Judiciary on Cannon-Conyers: To read the statements: Legislative Hearing on H.R. 1698, The "American Broadband Competition Act of 2001" and H.R. 1697, the "Broadband Competition and Incentives Act of 2001" - May 22, 2001 - Witness List, F. James Sensenbrenner, Bill Barr, Jeff Blumenfeld, John Malone, Terry Harvill =========================================================== About C-Cubed As of May 8th, 2001, TWO new bills were introduced by Representatives Cannon and Conyers last week titled "The American Broadband Competition Act of 2001". HR 1698, ("Cannon-Conyers") and "Broadband Competition and Incentives Act of 2001" HR1697 ("Conyers-Cannon") These bills are designed to "Prevent the Return of Bell Monopolies." These bills are pro customer, pro-consumer, and pro-competition.
"American Broadband Competition Act of 2001"
Who has jurisdication? These Bills are being presented as part of the Judicary Committee of the House of Representatives, while Tauzin-Dingell, an obvious Bell-Relief bill, is being presented in the Commerce Committee. \As of May 3rd, a new question arises ---Which Committee has jurisdiction over Telecom Issues? Here's a letter from House Judiciary Chairman Sensenbrenner to Speaker Hastert reaffirming its jurisdictional claims over telecommunications legislation. ==================================== Understanding Why Tauzin Dingell is EVIL.
Those Opposed to Tauzin Dingell:
The Players:
Money and Politics: Thanks to Open Secrets: Reading Materials about Tauzin, Dingell
The GOOD News: This bill will have trouble to pass in the Senate;
NNI in the News: InternetNews - ISP News -- Rep. Tauzin to Bring Broadband Deployment Why Tauzin-Dingell is Evil, ISPWorld, 4/27/01
|