Steve Buyer: “I commend Chairman Barton and Chairman Upton for their leadership, along with my colleague, Mr. Rush, from Chicago, and…”

“I commend Chairman Barton and Chairman Upton for their leadership, along with my colleague, Mr. Rush, from Chicago, and others. This came out of the subcommittee 27-4, a majority of the minority Democrats of the full committee supported this legislation. So this is an overwhelmingly bipartisan piece of legislation that is very exciting for the American people because it outlines the principles of free, open, market competition. It continues to spawn the technological renaissance that will benefit consumers and lower price. We are talking about things today that weren't even around when we did the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Telephony? IPTV? We didn't even know those terms. As a matter of fact, when compression technology came along, we thought the future in 1996 was about voice. We got it wrong. It is about voice, video, and data, and that is what we have today on these cell phones. So when we talk about delivering of video services, the landscaped has changed. Congress has to change. We need to get out of the way. We need to deregulate. If you have to regulate, do so on parity and be technologically neutral. I commend the chairman. I do not support the Markey amendment. Mandated neutrality standards do nothing more than squelch innovation, stifle competition and undermine broadband deployment.…”