June 28, 1998

Internet Is New Pet Issue in Congress

By LIZETTE ALVAREZ

ASHINGTON -- The Internet, with its influence on everything from commerce and national security to privacy and crime, has become an issue as politically alluring to many lawmakers as cutting taxes, educating children and locking up criminals.

It seems that not a week goes by on Capitol Hill without a hearing, a meeting or a gathering about one of a bevy of Internet-related issues confronting Congress.

“The Internet is relatively new, and the technology has changed so rapidly that it's not in a well-worn partisan rut.”
Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif.

When revenue-hungry governors threatened to tax the Internet, Congress got busy drafting legislation to keep levies at bay, a bill that passed the House last week. When parents expressed fears about pedophiles stalking their children on the Internet, the House passed legislation to help prosecutors chase them down. And when Hollywood voiced deep concern about copyright piracy in cyberspace, House members began studying the question of how to protect software and movies.

Lawmakers have also grown fond of making speeches about the subject. Just listen to Rep. Thomas Bliley Jr., R-Va., chairman of the Commerce Committee, who recently delivered remarks to the Computer and Communications Industry Association trade group, praising its members' ingenuity.

"The digital and information revolution in which many people in this room are front-line soldiers is truly liberating," Bliley said. "You should be proud of your contributions. So much has been done in a few short years. Congress can be proud as well, of some of the work it is doing. And since there is an election coming up, I will claim credit for most it."

Just two years ago, the term "chat room" conveyed nothing but a cozy hideaway office in the Capitol to most Senators and House members. And only 14 of them boasted Web sites.

So what changed?

Millions of voters have discovered the Internet. An estimated 23 million people in the United States now log on to the Internet, a figure that grows tremendously every day, and profits continue to skyrocket, including sales figures for goods that are bought and sold on line.

Related Articles Connecting to Congress: More Members Are Plugged In, but Few Are Making Connections (Jan. 15) U.S. Gives Up Last Vestige of Control Over Basic Internet Structure (June 6) Encryption Debate Heats Up in Washington (June 9) U.S. and Industry Discuss Data Encryption (June 10) House Passes Internet Tax Freedom Act (June 24) Committee Adds Internet Filtering Amendment to Budget Bill (June 26)

This growth dovetailed with another crucial change in the high-technology industry. Once loath to lobby Congress, executives of the industry have discovered Washington's relevance the hard way -- watching Microsoft take a pounding, for example -- and have started paying regular visits to influential members of Congress.

Two weeks ago, Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, huddled with lawmakers and Justice Department officials to discuss the encryption of data on the Internet.

For politicians, a breed perpetually in search of fresh battles and causes, the Internet offers a freshly minted take on old but sprightly issues. It gives lawmakers a new theme on which to stump, one that remains virtually wide open and unmarked.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., has taken his opposition to gambling in the real world to the next level, gambling online. His legislation would ban it.

Two weeks ago, Republicans and Democrats joined forces in combating pedophiles who stalk children online. And Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., is working to try to stamp out online pornography. Congress tried to do that in 1996 in its first real effort to deal with the Internet, but that law was struck down by the Supreme Court last year.

There are new issues as well. The scourge of junk e-mail, or spam, was the topic of a recent Senate subcommittee hearing at which Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, one of the senior members of the Senate, could not help but reminisce about the old days.

"I don't know if you recall the first time I ran into Spam," he told the assembled senators and witnesses, with a chuckle. "I do. It was as a youngster during World War II. It was rationed. A can of Spam and a cigarette."

The Senate passed a plan to combat junk e-mail earlier this year. The House has not taken up the issue.

In the coming months the Senate is expected to consider the tax moratorium, children's protection and copyright privacy on the Internet.

For years, Vice President Al Gore and his Democratic allies in Congress had a near lock on the subject of cyberspace, at least in the view of most Americans. The Republicans had Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was equally smitten with high technology.

But now other Republicans have started to make inroads on the information highway, framing themselves as natural allies of the libertarian-minded high-technology community industry, with which they share a fondness for laissez-faire governance.

Several prominent senators, including John McCain, R-Ariz., have taken to speaking often, and with intelligence, on the Internet's impact on society and the economy.

Lawmakers sense what pollsters know. Many of the legions of Internet devotees hopscotch just as easily from one party to another. "The real group up for grabs in the future are the libertarians," said Kellyanne Fitzpatrick, a Republican pollster who has queried lawmakers and the public about the Internet and has found a substantial rise in interest. "Some call themselves liberals and some call themselves conservatives."

Now, with both sides engaged, these cyber issues are beginning to acquire the traditional partisan gloss of election-year politics. Most recently, Republicans lashed out at the Clinton administration when they discovered that an effort to hook up every classroom in the United States to the Internet, something Congress endorsed in 1996, is resulting in heftier telephone bills for some taxpayers. They have dubbed it the "Gore tax."

And it seems that not a day drifts by without someone somewhere on Capitol Hill admonishing Gore about the dreaded year 2000 problem, which is shorthand for the devastating consequences that could be suffered if computers are not reprogrammed to recognize 00 as 2000 instead of 1900.

More often than not, however, these cyber issues, which are mostly nonpartisan in nature, tend to draw together hostile forces. Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., one of the most conservative members of Congress, has teamed up with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a longtime liberal, over the issue of data encryption. The same sort of bond was cemented between Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., for the moratorium on Internet taxes.

"The Internet is relatively new, and the technology has changed so rapidly that it's not in a well-worn partisan rut," said Cox, who added that he works routinely with Ira Magaziner, the administration's Internet guru. "There isn't a partisan lock on this.'

These members have forged these alliances around a common interest: staving off regulation, a position wholeheartedly supported by the industry.

Rep. Rick White, a Republican who is from Microsoft territory in Washington, describes the mission of Congress as establishing "rules of the road," a basic framework.

Leahy and the others fear that the Internet is becoming too popular a topic too quickly in Congress, and leading too often to "bumper-sticker politics," especially when it comes to privacy. "Those that want short-term political gains are closing out the possibility of real long-term benefits," Leahy said.

The consensus today, White said, is "we better not move too fast." But, he added, "the pressure is continuing to build."

Sensing that pressure, the industry is also beginning to act. At the behest of lawmakers and the administration, two industry organizations submitted plans this week to address the outcry over the violations of consumers' privacy on the Internet. Many people fear giving out their Social Security numbers on the Internet, feeling that that is like Big Brother.

But some lawmakers maintain that legislation is needed to safeguard the privacy of people who conduct business on the Internet.

In the past year, members have tried to educate themselves and each other about the Internet. For example, Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, R-La., the chairman of a subcommittee, held a series of what he called "tutorials" on the impact of electronic commerce. He said that lawmakers were beginning to realize that the old legislative framework did not necessarily apply to the Internet.

"The difference today is that if you are not prepared to deal with a new paradigm of virtual stores and boundaryless commerce, where brick and mortar is not relevant, then you will be a dinosaur," Tauzin said. "We are just beginning to be prepared."

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