Jay Rockefeller: “I wish all negotiations proceeded with such comity. For those of us who have lived long enough, we have seen, obviously…”

“I wish all negotiations proceeded with such comity. For those of us who have lived long enough, we have seen, obviously, enormous transition. We are in a totally new age. Today, as we begin our debate, over 200 billion e-mails will be sent around the world to every continent. Google, a company that really is just 10 years old, will process over 1 billion searches and stream more than 2 billion videos today. And in the next minute, about 36,000 tweets will be posted on Twitter. So we are now connected as we never have been before. Here in the United States we have been the leader in both its development and adoption of the initial structure. Actually, it is interesting because it was created by our own government. The open nature of the Internet can be traced back to our initial decision in the government to relinquish control of what we had invented, so to speak. So to this day our Nation remains a leader in using the Internet's innovation and growth. In just over a decade, we have digitized and networked our entire economy and our entire way of life. Every one of our most critical systems now relies upon these interconnected networks: power grids, transportation systems, gas pipelines, telecommunications. They all rely on networks to function. They all rely on the Internet. Yet the ramifications of this new era remain poorly understood by many; frankly, by most.…”