Jane Harman: “I believe the bill before us effectively unravels the careful balance Congress struck with the enactment of the 1996…”

“I believe the bill before us effectively unravels the careful balance Congress struck with the enactment of the 1996 Telecommunications Act and in doing so fails to promote consumer access to high-speed Internet services. The 1996 Telecom Act was the product of extensive debate on the House floor and the adoption of carefully crafted amendments. I was there, and Congress distinguished itself. Today, we are being asked to overturn several critical components of that carefully crafted agreement; and, if we do, I fear that we will only retard achieving the goal of promoting broadband access. What is preventing broadband access is not the lack of broadband services. Satellite broadband is universally available. About half of all households that have a telephone could have broadband and about 70 percent of all cable subscribers could sign up for broadband if they wanted it. Consumers do not subscribe because they do not see the high-value content that they are willing to pay for. Content is not available in large part because the producers and owners of that content and the manufacturers of the products used to watch and transmit that content have not come to agreement about how best to protect its intellectual property value.”