Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman for yielding. Madam Chairman, I rise in opposition to this amendment. The Senate-passed patent bill granted the PTO fee-setting authority into perpetuity. The Senate's goal was laudable. It wanted to allow the PTO to have control over the fees that it charges so that it would have more certainty about rolling out new programs and hiring new examiners to deal with pendency and quality issues. We have, as you know, a very long backlog--3 years, 1 million patents. However, I had strong concerns with granting this much authority to a government agency. Currently, the PTO must come before Congress to request any fee increases. This forces the PTO to use its current resources in the most efficient manner and also strengthens Congress' hand when it comes to oversight over the agency. Thus, I worked to get a provision into the House bill that would sunset the PTO's fee-setting authority. The bill now terminates the fee-setting authority after 7 years unless Congress proactively acts to extend it. This will allow the PTO sufficient time to structure its fees but will ensure that Congress continues to have a strong influence over that process. And I might add that the manager's amendment to the bill also strengthens Congress' hand and limits the objective of the PTO to arbitrarily raise its fees because the Congress still appropriates the funds and can only escrow funds--can't divert them to another purpose, but escrows them.…”