Ron Wyden: “tomorrow in the other body, the House of Representatives, they will begin debating one of the most important…”

“tomorrow in the other body, the House of Representatives, they will begin debating one of the most important communications issues facing our country--the future of the Internet. Since the other body will begin that discussion shortly and we have had debate beginning in the Senate Commerce Committee, chaired by Senator Stevens who worked so cooperatively with Senator Inouye, I wish to take a few minutes and talk about why I think this issue is so important and what the stakes are for our country. We all understand what has been so exciting about the Internet. The Internet has been a tremendously democratizing force, ensuring that in every nook and cranny of America, opportunities are there for Americans to learn, to tap the free enterprise system and to secure health care to name a few. This is an extraordinary array of opportunities. Today on the Internet, after you have paid your access charge to use the Net, you go where you want, when you want, how you want, free of discrimination because you have paid that one original access charge. Unfortunately, there are huge communications lobbies, consisting particularly of some of the major phone companies and some of the major cable companies, that want to change the way the Internet works. They would like to make consumers and businesses in our country pay tomorrow for what is free today.…”