Cliff Stearns: “It has been a long process on this bill to refine it and make it acceptable to industry. And for many, like myself, in…”

“It has been a long process on this bill to refine it and make it acceptable to industry. And for many, like myself, in our State of Florida they have been very successful in stopping slamming. There has been millions of dollars collected in fees. So while an original cosponsor of this bill, I did not want to create an overly regulatory, burdensome bill to address slamming, because I felt in my State we had made a strong effort to combat it. Congress has already attempted to address the problem of slamming through the Telecommunications Act by codifying a new section in the Communications Act to close the abusive loophole that was created by the breakup of AT&T in 1984. This new section in the act gave the FCC the power, gave the power to the FCC to issue new regulations to prevent slamming. Unfortunately, the FCC did not act in the direction that Congress had given it, and there was frustration on the part of many of the members on the Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection because they had not moved forward. It appeared the problem of slamming grew worse instead of better after the passage of the act. It was reported that the number of slamming complaints to the FCC rose to approximately 20,000 in 1997. Madam Speaker, this is a 56 percent increase over 1996. So, from 1996 to 1997, there was a 56 percent increase. The situation looked like it was getting worse.”