Steven Holt: “I rise in support of the anti-spam legislation before us, S. 877. I am glad to see that Congress has finally taken…”

“I rise in support of the anti-spam legislation before us, S. 877. I am glad to see that Congress has finally taken definitive action on this issue. During my first term in Congress, I worked with my colleagues Gene Green and Heather Wilson, who have shown great leadership here, on anti-spam legislation that passed the House in 2000. Today we have before us legislation to help address the mounting problem of unsolicited e-mail advertising, or spam, which has become perhaps the biggest nuisance of the Information Age and a drain on our economy. I am particularly pleased that this legislation includes a provision intended to combat a related problem that has gotten out of hand in some countries and is growing ever worse in the United States--spam sent to wireless phones through text messaging. As many of my colleagues know, I introduced legislation intended to draw attention to this issue--the Wireless Telephone Spam Protection Act. This bill was intended to launch what could be called a preemptive attack against wireless spam before it spins out of control in the United States. Congress too often acts once the fire is already lit. This time, we can put the fire out before it gets out of control. The Japanese are already fighting off a tsunami of cell phone spam. On one recent day, the 38 million customers of the largest Japanese wireless company, NTT DoCoMo, received 150 million pieces of spam.”