Page 172 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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Education Policy 18:0
As attention to the increased phone charges grew, a number of influen-
tial members of Congress backed away, including House Speaker Newt
Gingrich and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens.
By late May, two major consumer groups also opposed E-Rate: the Con-
sumers Union and the Consumer Federation of America. In its May
25, 1998, issue, Time magazine ran a story about the controversy over
the program, choosing as a frame the idea of a contest between Gore’s
enthusiasm for government support of technology and Republicans’
opposition to growth in the federal bureaucracy. The Time authors
reported that E-Rate was “under assault from Congress as an out-of-
control entitlement engineered by an out-of-control bureaucracy.” 108
On June 2, the Washington Post ran an opinion piece by James Glassman,
an economic commentator at the American Enterprise Institute, charg-
ing Al Gore with attempting to hide an expensive new entitlement
program. 109
All this obscured the fact that E-Rate was a congressional creation,
passed in a bill supported by industry, and requiring businesses to charge
educational institutions less than others for their services. But the dam-
age was serious. By the first week of June, the fuss over phone surcharges
extended to some of E-Rate’s erstwhile supporters. On June 4, Senators
John McCain and Ernest Hollings, along with Representatives Tom Bliley
and John Dingell, wrote to FCC Chairman William Kennard demanding
that E-Rate be suspended immediately. The lawmakers called FCC im-
plementation of the program a “spectacular failure” because it had led to
increased phone rates. They warned against any FCC efforts “tinkering
with a fundamentally flawed and legally suspect program” and directed
that the “[c]ommission should immediately suspend further collection
of funding for its schools and libraries program.” 110 The letter, which the
authors released publicly, was apparently intended to mollify education
groups as much as to persuade Kennard to change course. Representa-
tive John Dingell sent an individual letter on the same date, using the
stronger language for which he is known. Dingell called FCC’s steward-
ship of E-Rate “asinine,” and asked that the commission “simply pull the

108
Karen Tumulty and John F. Dickerson, “Gore’s Costly High-Wire Act,” Time,
May 25, 1998, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/dom/980525/nation.
Gores Costly High1.html.
109
James K. Glassman, “Gore’s Internet Fiasco,” Washington Post, June 2, 1998, p. A13.
110
Letter from Senators John McCain and Ernest Hollings and Representatives
Tom Bliley and John Dingell to the Honorable William E. Kennard, Chairman,
Federal Communications Commission, June 4, 1998, http://techlawjournal.com/
agencies/slc/80604let.htm.
155