Rep. Bob Latta Weighs in on STELA, Title II & E-Ra
Post# of 17650
Mary Schultz
08.05.2014
Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio), vice chair of the House Energy & Commerce subcommittee on communications and technology, recently appeared on C-SPAN's “The Communicators” to discuss his views on current telecommunications legislation, including the re-authorization of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA), Title II regulation and the funding of E-rate.
In relation to STELA, Latta said the House’s re-authorization had to be completed before the end of the year or “if we didn’t get it done we would have about 1.5 million Americans who would not be receiving television anymore … that was what the overall act was for.” When asked about the retransmission piece of the legislation, Latta noted that the provision was necessary to “even things up with cable and television stations … putting everyone on the same footing.” He also expressed his appreciation for fellow lawmakers coming together to pass the re-authorization bill on a voice vote, representing a major majority consensus between Democrats and Republicans.
On the topic of Title II, net neutrality and broadband legislation, Latta said, “First of all, I believe in an open Internet — a free Internet without government intervention. When you look at where the Internet has come and where it’s going in the future, this has all been done on the private sector. It’s not been done because of what the Federal government has done.” According to Latta, by putting broadband under Title II to make it more like telecommunications using a law from 1935, “What we will see happen then is that the innovation out there that’s spurred about a trillion dollars in private investment is all of a sudden going to be tied up like it would be with a telephone company. We don’t want that. Because once you start that up, then all of a sudden innovation is going to slow up — not only innovation — the dollars put in it and the tens of thousands of jobs being created. So we don’t want that to happen. We want to make sure that it remains free, it stays open and it stays away from government control.”
Asked about whether he supports further funding of E-rate, Latta said that he wants to know where the Federal Communications Commission is going with it and how much is going to be spent. Similar to the issue of net neutrality, he stressed, “Anything that is being done … we want less out there, not more.”
To hear more from the interview, click here.
http://www.c-span.org/video/?320669-1/communi...ons-reform