Joe Barton: “let me just recapitulate. Under current law, if you are a satellite provider, you don't have to pay any franchise fee…”

“let me just recapitulate. Under current law, if you are a satellite provider, you don't have to pay any franchise fee, any at all. Now, if you are a landlocked cable provider, you do have to pay some of these fees. They can be up to 5 percent, and they can charge some in-kind contribution for these pay channels. That is current law. Under the pending bill, if it were to become law, you get the existing franchise fees that are paid by the incumbent cable provider, plus the city can charge a 1 percent fee to the incumbent plus these new entrants are going to be automatically assessed up to 5 percent plus an additional 1 percent unless the city makes a different deal. Okay? Cities are going to have more money, more revenue sources. And the independent studies that have already come out say that, in most cases, city and local revenues are expected to grow as much as 30 percent. And I think they may be even higher than that. Ladies and gentlemen, that is not an unfunded mandate. That is not an unfunded mandate. So I strongly oppose this point of order and hope that we sustain the base rule and move forward to debate the underlying bill. parliamentary inquiry”