Ed Markey: “we are here on the House floor today debating a bill that flew through the Committee on Commerce, skipping a…”

“we are here on the House floor today debating a bill that flew through the Committee on Commerce, skipping a subcommittee markup in order to address some Internet access charge issues. Now many Members have received letters about a bill that would impose a modem tax, a per-minute-fee on e-mail or consumers' general Internet use. This fictitious bill sponsored by the equally fictitious Representative Schnell purports to impose new fees on Internet use. The proposal here on the floor, which is styled as a remedy to any chance that the FCC might some day permit access charges to be imposed on Internet service providers, is also a work of fiction. This is not a bill that we should send on to President Clinton. This is a bill that should be sent over to the Federal Trade Commission for false advertising. This bill does not prohibit per minute access charges on Internet service providers. Let me repeat that thought. This bill does not prohibit per minute access charges on Internet service providers. This bill only prohibits access charges that are for universal service to help poor people, to help rural Americans. That is the only thing that it prohibits.”