Jack Kemp Speaks Out on High Tech Regulation

Tyson’s Corner, VA, March 6, 2001- Jack Kemp, former GOP vice presidential candidate, Distinguished Fellow of the Washington, D.C. based Competitive Enterprise Institute, and co-founder of Empower America, is urging the new Republican administration to keep the Information Super Highway a free highway.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />

“This is a very important battle we’re fighting,” Mr. Kemp said at a breakfast discussion on tech policy hosted by Gary Nakamoto, Vice President of Base Technologies, which included business leaders from Washington, D.C. and northern Virginia. “It’s important that the policy fits the prescription,” Mr. Kemp added.

The former congressman and HUD Secretary believes the right prescription is to keep the Internet free of regulation and has become a leader in the fight to protect this new frontier. Already, the Internet Caucus of the 107th Congress is planning to take on a variety of Internet issues, including ones pertaining to privacy, taxation of Internet commerce, high-speed access to the Internet, E-Government issues, and intellectual property.

In addition, Mr. Kemp says tax cuts are essential for the state of the high-tech industry, to help generate venture capital. He is pushing for bigger tax cuts in conjunction with a more aggressive easing by the Federal Reserve to accomplish this goal.

The president and founder of CEI, Fred Smith, supports Kemp’s active role in this arena and points out that CEI has also positioned itself in the forefront of this important issue, with policy analysts doing research on Internet and technology policy.

“The technology frontier is the hope of tomorrow,” Smith says. “Societies grow not by doing old things better but by trying new ideas and developing them.”

CEI, a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group founded in 1984, is dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. For more information, please contact Jody Clarke, Vice President for Communications, at 202.331.1010, ext. 208, or at [email protected].