Statement of Congressman John D. Dingell, Ranking Member
Committee on Energy and Commerce

DELETING ONLINE PREDATORS ACT OF 2006

July 26, 2006

Mr. Speaker, I oppose these Internet predators. My good friend, for whom I have great respect, the chairman of this subcommittee from Michigan, opposes them. Everybody else in the Chamber opposes them. Every right-thinking and decent American opposes this practice. What we need, however, is good legislation which will address the problem. What we need is legislation which will be effective.

The Committee on Energy and Commerce had a number of hearings on these matters. It is interesting to note that, in the process of that, you can't find anything about there being a problem at schools and libraries. Now, this legislation has attracted both the strong opposition of the schools and the libraries and the Chamber of Commerce, which points out to us that this bill needs more work. In other words, Mr. Speaker, this bill is not ready for prime time.

The unfortunate thing about this legislation is that, rather than dealing with the real problem, which is kids and young people who are making these communications with sexual predators from their own home or their own den or from their own basement or from their own room, it deals with schools and libraries. Now, that is very fine if we had some record which would show that this is a real problem or that there is not a better cure somewhere else, which in fact there is.

The regrettable thing about this legislation is its rush to the floor. I can't tell whether it is a bunch of Republicans who are panicky about the next election or whether it is a situation in which everybody is trying to rush to get out of town to go on an August vacation. But the simple fact of the matter is this legislation is not going to do anything to stop the abuses about which there is a very legitimate complaint.

So here we are passing legislation, I suspect, to help some of my panicky Republican colleagues save themselves in a difficult election, or which will let people go home and say, oh, look what we did. But this process has not only been flawed, it has guaranteed that the matters that we discuss now do not really address the situation which confronts us.

And worse than that, we are going to be right back here at some future time, after the folks at home tell us what a sorry job we did in dealing with this matter. Because the problem of sexual predators continuing to work the young people is going to continue under this legislation, unabated; and we are going to come back here with red faces and say how we have made a mistake and we have to do more.

The simple fact of the matter is this legislation was sprung on us. I am told that it was written last night. We barely saw it before the process on the floor started. And the committee process, which enables us to look at legislation in a sound and responsible way, and the committee process, which enables us to work together to put good legislation on the floor, legislation which is carefully thought out and which the wisdom of all of the Members is brought to bear on the question, is not something which we find in the process in which we are now engaged.

So now we are on the floor with a piece of legislation poorly thought out, with an abundance of surprises, which carries with it that curious smell of partisanship and panic, but which is not going to address the problems.

We have a piece of legislation on which we have less than an hour to talk, and we have no opportunity whatsoever to amend the proposal. We can vote "yes'' or we can vote "no.'' Well, most Members, I suspect, will do the politically wise thing, and I will join them in it, and that is, I am going to hold my nose and vote for this legislation in the full awareness that it is not going to address the problem at all and that it is a political placebo for a very, very, serious problem.

This is, essentially, a shin plaster on a cancer. This is a piece of legislation which is going to be notorious for its ineffectiveness and, of course, for its political benefits to some of the Members hereabout.

It is, in a nutshell, Mr. Speaker, going to be as useful as side pockets on a cow in addressing the problem about which we are all deeply concerned, where we have a duty to our constituents to legislate strongly and well and where we have a duty to have an open process to hear the comments of our people, those that we serve, about what the legislation does to find out how we do the best job of serving the American people. Those events are absolutely not to be found in the history of this legislation.

I really regret that my colleagues on the other side have chosen to behave this way, but it seems to be a characteristic of this House under the leadership with which we are afflicted. Good legislation is withheld, poor legislation is written, and the opportunity for the people to be heard or for the legislation to be protected is totally unavailable.

The process stinks. The legislation is weak. The legislation will be ineffective, it will accomplish nothing, and we will all share red faces about this bumbling endeavor.

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(Contact: Jodi Seth, 202-225-3641)