Cliff Stearns: “Mr. Speaker, this is a very easy bill to understand. What the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey) wants to do is…”

“Mr. Speaker, this is a very easy bill to understand. What the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey) wants to do is have a government-based content bill; and what we want to do is continue the status quo. Now, there are five FCC commissioners who decided this ultimately in a 4-1 decision. On the commission there are five commissioners. Two are Republicans, and three are Democrats. They voted 4-1 in favor of what the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin) has tried to do. So, in this case, two Democrats on the commission who have all the information that is necessary and understand it much better than the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey), perhaps better than anyone else here, voted with the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin). They felt the status quo and the precedent had been established and that they did not want to have government-based content. In my home State of Florida there are three stations, one out of Boca Raton, Ft. Pierce, and Jacksonville, 24-hour a day with religious broadcasting. More than 125 noncommercial television broadcasters would be forced to completely drop their programs.”