The Public Record
I am perfectly willing and prepared to vote for a short-term ban on State and local taxation of pure Internet access, and I have been ready to do that since December. So I am for that. I can step over here and take my purist position and…
What was going through my mind was: I don't recall a time when I was Governor of Tennessee that I ever saw the Congress do anything like this. There were unfunded Federal mandates that we didn't like. Back in the early 1970s, before I was…
I suggest that the 1998 definition is a better definition than the one in the latest McCain proposal. The best definition is in the Alexander-Carper compromise in December, but in the interest of trying to get to a result, I could vote for…
sometimes when we talk about this Internet tax proposal, eyes glaze over. It is a hard subject for people to get into their brain because we are talking about a new way of doing things. We are talking about Internet access, how one…
Finally, I want to offer another recent article by Harley Duncan and Matt Tomalis, from the Multistate Tax Commission, entitled ``The Forgotten First Sentence.'' The definition of Internet access is what is causing a lot of the problem…
Finally, there are two articles which are a little long, but they are important. I know Senators and staff members will bring their attention to this subject, and we know we will be debating it for the next several days, and that truly we…
I have already spoken, so if the Senators from Virginia or Delaware want to speak, I will certainly yield to them. But I certainly congratulate the Senator from Ohio. He knows what he is talking about when it comes to State and local…
It is an interesting article. It is like a lot of other things. Just because we in Washington think everybody in America ought to have high-speed Internet access tomorrow doesn't mean they will take it, even if we give it to them. So then…
According to the Federal Communications Office of Engineering and Technology, having another major player--the power companies--has helped to bridge the digital divide. The power companies have the infrastructure to make broadband…
there is no doubt this is an unfunded Federal mandate. We can talk about that more this week. Some of my colleagues on my side have come up and said that does not sound like an unfunded mandate. I thought an unfunded mandate was when we…
I commend the Senator from Ohio for his comments on the asbestos legislation. This is a time when Americans are concerned about jobs, especially about manufacturing jobs. In the State of Tennessee, as in the State of Ohio, a large number…
I wish to respond to the majority leader's comments, if I may. I, as a great many Americans, am going to be watching the Connecticut-Tennessee basketball game tonight at 8:30 eastern time. Connecticut has a wonderful tradition, a terrific…
One of the things you learn here is if you want to have an impact in the Senate, you have to put a focus on something you care about and then keep after it. The Senator from Louisiana has done that. In her first term here she focused on…
I rise today to salute my senior colleague, Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia. Today, the Senator passed a milestone that has never been passed before, and may never be passed again: he cast his 17,000th vote on the Senate floor…
I learned very quickly as Chairman of this Commission that most of the decisions we have to deal with in environmental and conservation matters involve balance. Senator Landrieu and I know, because of our service on the Energy and Natural…
I simply wanted to congratulate the Senator from Nebraska on his comments. He and I served as Governors, as he said. We may not have gotten over that entirely as we look at legislation. We strongly support the revolutionary change in…
today I voted against the Dodd amendment for two important reasons. First, it is the wrong policy for growing jobs. And second, it tramples on the principle of federalism. Nearly 150,000 Tennesseans are employed by foreign companies…
I express my concern once again with the rising cost of medical liability insurance. Last July we debated this issue in the Senate, and unfortunately did not reach cloture on this important issue. Today we are limiting our debate on the…
I applaud Senator Bunning for introducing the bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide capital gains treatment for certain self-created musical works, and I am proud to be a co-sponsor of this bill. This bill will make…
I rise to propose that we turn the Presidential nominating process over to the National Football League, except for Super Bowl half-time shows. Then maybe we can have a second Super Bowl, where anything is possible and everyone can…
Other than the war in Iraq, I suppose the subject we hear most about is jobs. We are worried, as are our constituents, about the future. How do we keep good-paying jobs? We are aware that in this country of not very many people, compared…
I have been mystified, since I am not a member of the Judiciary Committee, by the treatment of Judge Pickering of Mississippi and Attorney General Bill Pryor of Alabama. I do not know Judge Pickering. I have met him briefly only twice. My…
insofar as the Senator from Arizona's comments are concerned, he said we gave 168 a fair trial and hanged 4 without a trial. He might have also said we had never done that before this year. That is the point. Let me step back from this and…
The issue before us is a pretty simple one. I think a lot of other Americans think President Bush ought to appoint judges with conservative principles who will not make up the rules as they go along, who will not make up the law as they go…
In the 1960s? How long was civil rights legislation held up in this very body by the filibuster? What was it that caused the cloture rules to be changed so now it takes 60 to override instead of 67? It was the Nation's anger about the…
Politicians like Douglas Alexander
