John Hope Bryant: “the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Conyers] made a very important point a moment ago when he pointed out that last year…”

“the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Conyers] made a very important point a moment ago when he pointed out that last year when we passed the bill by an enormous margin, we had a stronger Justice Department provision in the bill than we do, than even the Conyers amendment today would be. The House has adopted the manager's amendment over our strong objections, but for goodness sakes consider the fact that, while the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Bliley] makes the point that we have decided that Congress shall make the decision with regard to communications law rather than the courts, Congress cannot make the decisions with regard to every single case out there. As is the case throughout antitrust law, all we are saying with the Conyers amendment is that the Justice Department ought to be able to render a judgment on whether or not entry into this line of business by one of the Bell companies is going to impede competition rather than advance it. Now, what motive would the Justice Department have to do anything other than their best in this matter? They have done a fine job in this area now for many, many years. The Conyers amendment would just come along and say, we are going to continue to have them exercise some judgment.”