William Tauzin: “Mr. Chairman, let me first compliment the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey) for his excellent cooperation and…”

“Mr. Chairman, let me first compliment the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey) for his excellent cooperation and work and the spirit by which we bring this bill to the floor today. I thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Bliley), the chairman, and the other members of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection for the excellent work that they have done on this bill and the other bill that we will bring to the floor today, both bills dealing with the wireless telephone industry and its consumers and aspects that are extremely important to both the public safety and to the privacy of those communications. I also want to thank my good friend the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) and my dear colleague, the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Mrs. Wilson) for sponsoring these bills and for leading the charge to indeed make them the law of the land. Mr. Chairman, 1997 was a landmark year in the history of this country. In 1997, more Americans bought cordless phones than wired phones, for the first time in the history of this technology. In fact, some 68 million Americans now carry wireless telephones or pagers. Studies show that most of those American subscribers of these wireless phones purchase them for safety reasons. People count on those phones to be their lifelines in emergencies.”