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Washtech.com: Congress and the Internet
Discussion with Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA-09)
Friday, April 6, 3 p.m. ET.
Congressman Rick Boucher (D) doesn't represent Northern Virginia's high-tech corridor. But even though his district lies in the far southwestern corner of the state, he is a leader in Congress when it comes to Internet policy. As co-chairman of the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee, Boucher works with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on guiding high-tech policymaking. And as reported in Washington Techway (March 26 issue), Boucher lead the charge to wire his rural district and is outspoken in the need to ensure advanced Internet access for rural communities.
Join Rep. Boucher on Friday, April 6 at 3 p.m. ET for a discussion of Congress and Internet policy. The discussion will be moderated by Washington Techway reporter Anne Usher.
Submit your questions and comments before or during Friday's discussion.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control
over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
Anne Usher:
I'd like to welcome Rep. Rick Boucher to our online discussion today and ask that our readers take the time to submit questions for him. We will focus our discussion on efforts to improve high speed Internet access in rural communities, a task he helped to accomplish in his own town of Abingdon, Virginia. He helped to draft the 1996 Telecommunication Act.
Congressman Boucher, thanks again for joining us. Before we begin, I would like to know what motivated you to try to get high speed access into Abingdon in the first place?
Congressman Rick Boucher: I have a goal of my district being the rural leader nationally in the use of information technology with its many attendant benefits for improvements in the local economy and in the quality of life for the residents of my district. Creating opportunities for affordable high speed Internet access for small business and residents is essential to achieving that goal.
The telecommunications companies in my region were pricing T1 Internet links ( 1.5 million bits of data per second) at rates of approximately $2000 monthly. These prices placed broadband links beyound the reach of our citizens. My proposal that the Town of Abingdon demonstrate that the locality could provide a truly affordablke service at about $35 monthly was a direct response to this pricing.
We also encouraged our localities to launch electr5onic village projects, of which we now have 28 in total. While these projects do not typically include broadband deployemnts, they have many elements designed to encourage greater Internet understanding and use. I would be pleased to address thes projects if the participants in our discussion are interested in learning about them.
Arlington, Va.:
Do you think the Internet is a panacea to the economic development challenges faced by your congressional district?
Congressman Rick Boucher: Extensive use of the internet will transform the economies of world areas by encouraging companies which are located in major metropolitan areas to locate portions of their businesses in rural regions. Rural areas typically offer a high quality of life, plentiful workers and low costs of doing business. Through the use of electronic networks, companies that are presently tied to the cities can have immediate access to these rural assets with cosequent major benifits for the business. By rendering distant irrelevent the internet will transform rural economies.
Woodbridge, Va.:
You're concerned about high-speed Internet access in rural areas. But what about suburban areas like Prince William County? There's no good access here--how come?
Congressman Rick Boucher: Uran and suburban areas will receive early deployment of cable modem services and DSL services, which are offered by telephone companies. Typically, these broadband offerings are resonably priced and attractive for home use. If the cable company serving Prince William County is not presently offering cable modem service, an inquiry to the cable company concerning its schedule for deploying the service would be in order. YOu may also be interested to know that a new fully interactive sattleite based high speed internet access service is now being offered by Starband. The sattelite pathway is utilized both for the downlink and the uplink, eliminating the need for a wired uplink, which was a feature of the earlier generation of sattelite based internet access services.
Arlington, Va.:
Is there a bipartisan consensus in Congress on how to approach the Internet?
Congressman Rick Boucher: Information technology policy matters are addressed by the Congress in a bipartisan manner. In fact, I have the privalige of serving as one of two co-chairman of the Congressional Internet Caucus, the largest and most active caucus in the Congress. Unlike matters relating to taxes, spending and budgeting, which are typically characterized by partisan discord, internet policy, intellectual property law policy and basic telecommunications policy matters do not draw a partisan difference. Divisions tend to be along industry specific lines or geographic lines, but they almost never divide along partisan lines.
Falls Church, VA:
If you could make one change in public policy vis-a-vis technology and the Web, what would it be?
Congressman Rick Boucher: I am the sponsor of legislation which would assure that all internet transport platforms are open so that internet users may choose from among a variety of internet access providers without regard to the platform for internet transport the internet user utilizes. The telephone transport platform is open by virture of exsisting federal law. However, the cable modem platform and the sattelite and wireless platforms are not required to provide customer choice of ISPs under existing law. My legislation would apply that requirement to all of the platforms. It would also assure that unaffiliated program originators can reach their customers without interference from the platform owner. Thei gaurentee is of particular interest to the companies that are originating interactive television services. While a need exsists for enhanced privacy gaurentees for internet users and for legislation that will encourage more rapid broadband deployment, the open access legislation should be a first priority for this Congress.
Alexandria, Va.:
I'm curious about your take on the many different Internet privacy bills floating around the Hill these days. Are you backing any particular one?
Congressman Rick Boucher: I am working with Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) who is my co-chairman of the Internet Caucus in drafting legislation which will extend a new set of privacy guarentees to internet users. Our legislation addresses the practices of web sites which collect information from internet users. We propose that each web site be required to publish on the web site a statement of what information the web site collects from those who visit the web site. The web site would also be required to describe how the information is used. Finally, an opportunity would be provided for the internet user to depart the web site with no information being collected. Enactment of this legislation would provide a greater assurance to internet users that their privacy rights are being respected, a condition which should promote greater use of the internet by individuals who are concerned about privacy guarentees.
Falls Church, Va.:
Should Congress be regulating Spam? E-mail programs are sophisticated enough these days to block unwanted mails, so why involve Congress at all?
Congressman Rick Boucher: Spam often degrades the performance of the facilities of internet access providers. In fact, a very large ISP which serves a major portion of my congressional district recently underwent a 2 day long degredation of e-mail service due to an onslaught of spam. Accordingly, I think it is appropriate for congress to enact legislation which will empower internet access providers to protect both their facilities and the services they provide to their customers. Under the terms of legislation we are now considering in the House, an ISP will have leagal standing to obtain injunctions and damages if spammers violate a restrictive policy published by the ISP. This approach to addressing the problem of spam respects the free speech rights of individuals while simultaniously taking appropriate steps to assure the continued effective functioning of the facilities of ISPs.
Arlington, Va.:
Should courts in France have the right to regulate at Internet site that is run from U.S. soil?
Congressman Rick Boucher: I believe that the French government has acted inappropriately in declairing that it is unlawful for the internet to be used in a manner which makes available certain kinds of information to French citizens. In all prabability, a simular provision would be found to be unconstitutional if it were enacted in the United States. As a first matter I would hope that French courts would reach a simular result.
While it may be technically possible for web sites based in the US to screen out French originating traffic, we should make every effort both officially and privately to discourage any national government from walling off its citizens from the receipt of categories of information delivered over the internet. I have already had a series of conversations concerning this matter with French government representatives. I am encouraging our State Department and our Commerce Department to do the same.
Langley, VA:
Congressman Boucher:
Do you support federal or state governments taxing the internet, or internet-based financial transactions, in any way?
Congressman Rick Boucher: I support an extention of the internet tax moratorium which is scheduled to expire in October of this year. The moratorium prohibits the imposition of any new taxes on internet services and the imposition of any tax which treats the internet in a discrimintory manner. The moratorium does not address the taxation of purchases accomplished by means of electronic commerce. The law concerning weather or not an out of state merchant is required to escrow and remitt to the state of the residence of the purchaser that state's sales taxes is unaffected by the internet tax moratorium.
The law regarding the escorw of sales taxes on interstate purchases, whether by catalog orders, by telephone or by the internet, is somewhat arbitrary. The only time an escrow is required is when the out of state merchant has a substantial physical presence in the state where the purchaser resides. As electronic commerce becomes a larger percentage of total commerce, pressures will mount to achieve equality of tax treatment between in state merchants and out of state merchants. In my opinion, any serious effort to achieve a policy of national escrow of sales taxes on all purchases is years away.
Arlington:
What do you think of the new administration's approach to the Internet?
Congressman Rick Boucher: The Bush administration has focused almost exclusively on the proposed tax package and on the education reform legislation. It has had little to say about any information technology policy matter. The primary officials with responsibility for technology policy have not been appointed as of this time. We will probably not have a good basis upon which to gauge the administration's information technology agenda until the second half of this year. In the mean time, on a bipartisan basis, Mr. Goodlatte and I are putting forward a range of internet specific measures which will be the subject substantial congressional debate.
Anne Usher:
These are fantastic questions. We will wrap up in about five minutes, so please keep sending them in.
Tuscaloosa, Ala.:
There is much talk about the possibility of some form of Internet regulation and/or taxing. Do you really believe that this is possible or even probable?
Congressman Rick Boucher: I have responded previously to questions regarding internet taxation. With respect to regulation of the internet, I do not anticipate Congress giving serious consideration to measures which would apply basic telecommunication law requirements to the internet. The internet legislative agenda is appropriately focused on encouraging a more rapid deployment of broadband services, enhancing the privacy rights of internet users, assuring continuaty of the open architecture of the internet, fighting spam and extending the internet tax moratorium.
Anne Usher:
Unfortunately, we need to call this session to a close. Once again, thanks Congressman Boucher for participating in this online discussion.
Alexandria, VA:
What incentives to broadband carriers have to wire rural communities with small potential markets?
Congressman Rick Boucher: It does not take a particulairly large population of potential users to offer a profitable opportunity to a provider of either cable modem service or DSL service. In fact, cable modem service is now available in several rural communities in my congressional district with populations under 3,000 people. I am supporting legislation at the present time which will provide broader incentives to Bell operating companies to deploy DSL services more rapidly by permitting them to have ownership in the internet backbone. If they can carry the traffic from the originating user trough the internet backbone they will have greater incentives to deploy DSL serivces more rapidly.
Anne Usher:
(Thought we'd sneak one last one in... a big thanks to our audience for your participation!)
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