Tough road ahead
The bills face an uncertain future in the Senate, where Sen. Fritz Hollings (D, SC) has taken over as chair of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, with the change in party leadership following the move of Vermont’s Jim Jeffords from Republican to Independent. Sen. Hollings was one of the architects of the 1996 telecommunications legislation and in the past at least has not looked favorably on changing it. Through 25 July at least, no Senate committee hearings have been scheduled to debate these bills.
The leading House bill on broadband deregulation, the Tauzin-Dingell bill (HR 1542) received a setback in the House Committee on the Judiciary that reported it unfavorably to the House floor on 18 June. The bill, known as Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act of 2001, has 112 cosponsors. Like the first Brownback-Enzi bill, it exempts the regional Bell companies from regulations imposed on services outside their traditional market areas.
Links
Broadband Deployment and Competition Enhancement Act of 2001 (S1126): http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?...
Rural Broadband Deployment Act of 2001 (S1127): http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?...
Sen, Brownback’s floor remarks introducing the bills: http://www.senate.gov/~brownback/6-28-01...
Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act of 2001 (HR 1542) http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?...
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation http://www.senate.gov/committees/committ...
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