Tauzin-Dingell Passes House

TheMatt writes: "The House has just passed the Tauzin-Dingell telecom deregulation bill. This was previously discussed here yesterday." All of the reports seem to agree that there are enough Senators opposed to it that it's not likely to pass this session.

Comments

Minor Error in article...

[leviramsey]

The article says:

The House did come together to vote 427-1 in favor of an amendment that would increase fines for telecom companies that violate competition law.

But, according to this page, the vote was 421-7. By the way, the seven who are firmly in the Bell's pockets are:

• Richard Baker (LA)
• Joel Hefley (CO)
• Jones (NC)
• Butch Otter (ID)
• Ron Paul (TX)
• Mike Simpson (ID)
• Joe Skeen (NM)

Re:Minor Error in article...

[Detritus]

Considering that Ron Paul ran for President on the Libertarian Party ticket, I doubt that his opposition to the amendment was based on financial support from the Bell companies.

A possible ray of light...

[Masem]

A late-added amendment that was included in the bill says that the ILECs still must offer access to the equipment and COs to CLECs at rates that the FCC sets. In addition, a second amendment ups the penalties for the ILECS in not cooperating with CLECs and other necessary groups up to $1mill from $100k per incident. While this does not necessarily prevent the ILECs from trying to monopolize the lines, it does still offer a chance for CLECs to play fair. Of course, concern over what those rates are that the FCC sets is in question.

But again, this has a strong battle in the Senate, and Hollings was very loud-spoken in stating that this bill won't get through the Senate in a form close to the House version, and he's the one right now with the most power on the Senate treatment of the bill.