Haley Stevens: “I excepted from my approval of the bill as a conferee on the Commerce Committee side this provision on the universal…”

“I excepted from my approval of the bill as a conferee on the Commerce Committee side this provision on the universal service fund. Mr. President, I am not going to raise a proper point of order, and there is a proper point of order, but it would bring down the whole bill, and it is not timely. I would raise it if this went into effect next year. It will not go into effect until October 1 in the year 2000. So we have time to work this out and find a way to make peace on this subject. I intend to pursue that after the hearings that the Senator from Arizona has announced, as chairman of the Commerce Committee, he will hold. I don't think anyone really realizes what this does. I will say, and I know the Senator from New Mexico was trying to get it to me, the first time I saw this was today, although it had been described to me, and that is why I would not approve the Commerce Committee portion of the bill pertaining to the service fund. As a matter of fact, this is the old interstate rate pool, Mr. President. People in the business still refer to that in many ways. It became the universal service fund.”