2. Vice President Al Gore recently announced that the Administration would make legislative proposals on telecommunications and infrastructure issues by early 1994. Building on principles articulated in a December 21, 1993, speech in Washington, D.C., the Vice President outlined the basic elements of this new legislation in a major address before the Television Academy in Los Angeles on January 11, 1994. These elements include: (1) increase competition and private investment in communications by removing unnecessary regulations and artificial barriers to participation by private firms in all communications markets; (2) secure open access to the network for consumers and service providers; (3) preserve and advance universal service for all Americans across all sectors of society; and (4) develop a new regulatory framework that is flexible and fair by allowing the FCC to reduce regulation for telecommunications carriers that lack market power.
3. NTIA and the New Mexico State Corporation Commission (NMSCC) convened this first hearing in Albuquerque on December 16. Presided over by a hearing board comprising high-ranking members of NTIA, the NMSCC, and the FCC, the hearing featured welcoming remarks by Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and testimony by twenty-six panelists (including the Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico) and twenty-four witnesses drawn from the audience. The four panels focused on the current extent of universal service in the highly rural state, the desired capabilities of a redefined concept, the appropriate goals of the government and private sectors, and who should pay. The day before the hearing a group of federal officials, accompanied by staff members of Senator Bingaman and the Lieutenant Governor, visited the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe and the San Juan Pueblo. The visit permitted government contact with Native Americans, who represent the most underserved group in the state.
Los Angeles is the site of the second field hearing, emphasizing the status of universal service and the needs of users in a very urbanized setting. The hearing, originally to be held on January 20, 1994, was postponed after the area suffered extensive damage from an earthquake. Planned to feature three panels of witnesses presided over by a hearing board, and several advanced telecommunications technology demonstrations, the hearing was re-scheduled for February 16, 1994. Panel topics included the current status of universal service in California, and particularily Los Angeles; the role of universal service in community building, health, and education; and who should pay.
4. Introduced on November 22, 1993, H.R. 3636, the "National Communications Competition and Information Infrastructure Act of 1993," also known as the Markey-Fields bill, would, among other things, promote private sector investment in advanced telecommunications, adapt universal service to a multi-provider environment and the twenty- first century, and permit cable TV entry into the telephone business.
