WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback today joined U.S. Sen. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) as a cosponsor of the Broadband Internet Access Act of 2000. This legislation creates tax incentives for the deployment of broadband (high-speed) Internet services to rural, low-income, and residential areas.

“How to properly incentivize the deployment of broadband infrastructure and services in rural areas is arguably the single most important telecommunications issue faced by Congress today,” Brownback said. "The Internet is changing the way we communicate, learn, shop, and entertain ourselves. But having access to broadband services can make the difference between whether a community is part of the new economy, or isolated from it,” Brownback said.

The legislation provides graduated tax credits to companies that bring qualified telecommunication capabilities to targeted areas. It grants a 10-percent credit for expenditures on equipment that provide a bandwidth of 1.5 million bits per second (mbps) to subscribers in rural and low-income areas, and a 20-percent credit for delivery of 22 mbps to these customers and other residential subscribers.

Cosponsoring the Moynihan legislation with Brownback are U.S. Sens. John F. Kerry (D-MA), John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Wayne Allard (R-CO), Max Baucus (D-MT), John Breaux (D-LA), Richard H. Bryan (D-NV), Jim Bunning (R-KY), Conrad Burns (R-MT), Tom Daschle (D-SD), Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC), Tim Hutchinson (R-AR), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), Robert J. Kerrey (D-NE), Mary L. Landrieu (D-LA), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Harry Reid (D-NV), Charles S. Robb (D-VA), Pat Roberts (R-KS), and Charles E. Schumer (D-NY).

The legislation has been endorsed by a number of organizations, including Bell Atlantic, MCI/Worldcom, Corning Incorporated, the National Telephone Cooperative Association, the Association for Local Telecommunications Services, the United States Distance Learning Association, and the Imaging Science and Information Systems Center at Georgetown University Medical Center.

Brownback is the author of S. 877, the Broadband Internet Regulatory Relief Act, which would exempt the broadband facilities and services of incumbent local telephone companies from the stricter regulations that do not apply to any other companies.