At a roundtable discussion with high-tech leaders June 30, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) discussed Republicans' plans to overhaul the e-rate telecommunications discounts program. The CNET online news service reported that Gingrich said he wants Congress to remove the program from Federal Communications Commission oversight, instead setting up a block grant that would provide each state with a lump sum of money and allow the state to decide how to distribute it.
Gingrich and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) met with members of the Technology Network coalition at the Silcon Valley headquarters of 3Com. Goodlatte said he opposed tying the e-rate to a filtering mandate as required by the Internet School Filtering Act (S. 1619), calling instead for local choice. "I am very much in favor of filtering. I have not come to the point of saying that in order to receive the funds you have to do that," he said.
Posted July 13, 1998.