•HRES 1457 IH 
cies adopted by Congress and the Federal Communica-
tions Commission between 1996 and today; 
Whereas the United States has approximately 70,000,000 
wireline broadband subscribers, more than Japan, Ger-
many, and the United Kingdom combined; 
Whereas wireless auctions are the reason the United States 
has 35,000,000 wireless broadband subscribers, which 
represents an increase of more than 200 percent in a 
year; 
Whereas the Universal Service Fund has, in recent years, 
been plagued with mismanagement, a bloated budget, and 
out-of-date initiatives; 
Whereas public-private partnerships, like those piloted by or-
ganizations such as Connected Nation, have raised 
broadband subscription rates, especially in rural areas, by 
increasing both broadband supply and demand without 
having to rely on regulation; 
Whereas the United States Patent and Trademark Office 
issued an average of 179,909 patents per year from 1999 
to 2007, and in 2007 issued a total of 182,930 patents 
which represents a decrease of 6 percent from the pre-
vious year; 
Whereas deregulatory policies and free-market competition 
consistently yield a higher rate of economic growth, a 
greater standard of living for all Americans, and an en-
hanced capacity for the United States to be competitive 
in the global marketplace; 
Whereas the digital age not only expands an individual’s 
reach and ability to connect with family and friends, pro-
vides new and exciting educational opportunities, and 
opens up the global economy to entrepreneurial initia-
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•HRES 1457 IH 
tives, but it also exposes an individual to a myriad of new 
threats such as identity theft, scams, and other methods 
of online victimization; and 
Whereas we should continually strive to advance this rapidly 
growing source of social and economic benefit to our Na-
tion: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that in order to continue aggressive growth 
in our Nation’s telecommunications and technology indus-
tries, the United States Government should ‘‘Get Out of 
the Way and Stay Out of the Way’’ by— 
(1) promoting investment through deregulation 
and free-market competition; 
(2) reforming the Universal Service Fund, and 
encouraging broadband deployment in both rural 
unserved and underserved areas through the use of 
public-private partnerships; 
(3) making additional spectrum available for 
commercial usage through unencumbered auctions; 
(4) establishing a national goal of transmitting 
high-quality, real-time voice, data, graphics, and 
video at increasingly higher speeds to all people in 
the United States; 
(5) reforming our national patent and trade-
mark system to protect the intellectual property of 
those on the leading edge of innovation; and 
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•HRES 1457 IH 
(6) ensuring individual privacy protections with-
out compromising marketplace efficiencies. 
Æ 
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