On the recordDecember 15, 2010
I just would echo the comments of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton) about Mr. Boucher. Having worked with Mr. Boucher, he and I have cosponsored many bills across the spectrum. Recently, obviously, we worked on privacy together. And also, we tried to hammer out some kind of compromise on net neutrality. Net neutrality was difficult because the FCC was attempting to move it to title II. We finally got them to stop that. In fact, the court stopped them. Again, Mr. Boucher and I met with the stakeholders across the board to try and see if there was some compromise. We both agreed it should be under the jurisdiction of the Congress and not the FCC acting unilaterally, as it appears they are going to do on December 21 when they vote for net neutrality, which I am against. But I have to admire Mr. Boucher's perseverance, his stick-to-it-ness, whether it is trying to reach compromise on legislation, or his reach-out to stakeholders. For example, on the privacy, he had a comment period on his privacy bill that I cosponsored, which is unusual around here. A lot of times we say we don't have an opportunity to even read the bills before they are voted on, but in fact, under Mr. Boucher's leadership as chairman of the Telecommunications Subcommittee, he took his bill and offered it as a draft to get stakeholders' comments. That is a credit to his leadership. As Mr. Barton pointed out, we are going to miss him.
