Wired for Progress

Barton Primed for Effort to Overhaul Telecom Act

June 2, 2005, 12 a.m.

When Texas Rep. Joe Barton (R) assumed the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee from retiring Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.) in the last Congress, he also inherited something else. Namely, stewardship of a tangle of national telecommunication laws applying a mish-mash of regulations to a cluster of industries growing so rapidly that the government has been hard-pressed to keep up oversight.

Already, Barton’s panel has dug into the issues with a bill addressing the onset of universal digital television technology and is moving forward with legislation that will have a profound impact on the way the federal government regulates the Internet.

But the biggest mountain for Barton and other Members and Senators to climb in this arena will be a massive rewrite of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, something he estimates has a “75 percent chance” of coming to pass in the current Congress. Barton sat for a Q&A with Roll Call Executive Editor Morton M. Kondracke.

Schumer Advocates for Many on Panel

Nov. 16, 12 a.m.

As Senate Majority Leader, Lyndon Johnson once said of the Joint Economic Committee, “It’s as useless as tits on a bull.” But as that panel’s chairman during the 110th Congress, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) seized the opportunity to elevate the traditionally low-profile post to the forefront of shaping policy. Read Full Article