William Tauzin: “Mr. Speaker, welcome to Groundhog Day, courtesy of a misguided court decision, soon to be overthrown, I believe, were we…”

“Mr. Speaker, welcome to Groundhog Day, courtesy of a misguided court decision, soon to be overthrown, I believe, were we not acting today, but one that jeopardizes one of the most consumer-friendly regulations ever to come out of Washington in a long time. Just several months ago, President Bush signed the Do-Not-Call Implementation Act into law. That law authorized the funding of the Federal Trade Commission's National Do-Not-Call registry, a concept so embraced by consumers in America that 50 million Americans have now signed up to be on that list since then. And, Mr. Speaker, Congress passes a law, and an agency then implements it. Nothing wrong, right? Wrong. One can imagine our surprise when we found out yesterday morning that a Federal court in Oklahoma, not California, Oklahoma, invalidated the FTC's do-not-call registry. And even more surprising was the judge's basis for the decision. He found the FTC did not have the statutory authority to create a national do-not-call list. Nothing could be further from the truth.”