Telecom policy pro-consumer

Congress last week passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the first major telecommunications reform legislation in more than 60 years.

Following years of detailed studies, interminable hearings, and heavy lobbying, Congress finally decided that government could no longer "manage" the introduction and use of revolutionary new communications technologies without destroying jobs and damaging American competitiveness.

Increasingly, members of Congress came to understand a simple fact: Policies of "managed innovation" -- an oxymoron embraced by Vice President Al Gore, Labor Secretary Robert Reich and other proponents of a government-led industrial policy