Joe Barton

I think that if we can solve that issue satisfactorily, the sky is the limit.

So you don't see any national security issues if we were to license LNG facilities?

I double down on what Mr. Poe said. This is the committee that when the Internet first got started...offered the amendment that passed that we would have no regulation of the Internet here in the United States and no taxation.

I happen to agree with that.

For the United States to sign this treaty would be absolute absurdity.

I do expect the FCC will follow the law, including maximizing the proceeds from the auction.

Markets, not the whims of regulators, are best-suited to ensure that spectrum is put to productive and innovative use.

I want to compliment the chairman, who is not here, for the new seats up here on the dais. They are very comfortable.

I personally believe it is not fair at all that the end result is that a low power television station that has been a good licensee ends up totally off the air.

I would like a commitment that the Commissioners will honor the language of the act that requires guard bands to be, and I quote, 'no larger than is technically reasonable to prevent harmful interference between license services outside…

A broadcast incentive auction that fails to raise the revenue needed for these projects or that unnecessarily gives away billions in cleared spectrum will be considered a failure.

I would encourage the Commission and the staff and the members of this committee to keep an open mind on this because we have conflicting goals.

We want to maximize revenue for deficit reduction, we want to maximize reallocation of spectrum for new uses...

I thank the gentlelady from West Virginia for her courtesy. She didn't have to yield me time since I'm in opposition to the bill, and I appreciate it. I am in opposition to this bill, although it is very well-meaning and well-intentioned…

There are many Ralph Hall stories, most of which we can't really tell on the House floor--that's how funny they are--but I want to tell one real, true Ralph Hall story which is the epitome of a Texan. Several years ago, Ralph told me that…

Can you ever give a straight answer to the question?

We have a tragedy of significant proportions here. Thirty-two people have died; probably more will.

I think we ought to work on using the authority that we have, as opposed to trying to get additional authority at the Federal level.

we have a job to clarify the law if there is not clarity in the law, and we can easily do it.

I want to be explicitly clear. If there really is a regulatory gap--based on the record that I have reviewed, I don't believe there is.

You can take a regulator to a problem, but you can't make it regulate.

It is an absolute tragedy without any question that 32 people have died, and it is very unlikely that that is going to be the end of the death toll.

What is very clear is that you don't want to answer the question.

I hope that when the EPA gets around to my five refineries and chemical plants in our district that they would let us have the same grandfather clause.

I do not think is a fair and balanced playing field.