Joe Barton: “I want to also express my support to the leadership on both sides of the aisle that have pushed this legislation.…”

“I want to also express my support to the leadership on both sides of the aisle that have pushed this legislation. Special thanks to my good friend, Jack Fields, who is retiring at the end of this session and this is going to be his legacy. He gets triple gold stars for his work. I want to give a special thought on the local control of the right-of-way. The gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Stupak, and myself and Senator Hutchison in the Senate have worked on that. I had a phone conversation with the president of the League of Mayors this morning, the gentleman from Knoxville, TN. They are supporting the bill. I would urge all Members who have had some concerns expressed by their mayors to be supportive. We have worked out language in the bill and in the conference report that gives cities absolute guarantees to control their right-of-way and to charge fair and reasonable nondiscriminatory pricing for the use of that right-of-way. This is a good piece of work, it is comprehensive, it is revolutionary. As my good friend, the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Boucher], said, this opens up seamless interactive communications for all Americans, and I would urge an 'aye' vote on the bill.”