John B. Breaux: “I think it is clear to all of us in Congress that the world is changing. It changes every day. The way we communicate in…”

“I think it is clear to all of us in Congress that the world is changing. It changes every day. The way we communicate in this world is also changing. We communicate differently with the people across the street or across this country or, indeed, across the world. What, however, is not changing is Congress. Congress has not over the past many years changed the way we have looked at communications law in this country. Communications technology has changed dramatically since the last time Congress addressed the question of communications policy. As a matter of fact, the last major communications act in Congress was adopted back in 1934--60 years ago. Over the past 60 years, it is clear that communication technology has made dramatic and serious advances in the way we communicate with our neighbors around the world. Unfortunately, because Congress has not kept up with the changes in technology, we find that the policy in communications has been made over the past several years not by those of us in Congress in response to our constituents but, rather, those policy decisions on what constitutes good communications policy have been made by a district judge in the District of Columbia and not based on a communications statute passed by the Congress but, rather, based on communications policy that has really been driven by antitrust legislation. Madam President, that is not the way Congress should legislate in this area.”