Extent: 1 linear ft.
Boxes 31 - 32
Contents: Correspondence, meeting notes, floor statements, memoranda, drafts and final versions
of bills and amendments, published reports, clippings.
Arrangement: Alphabetically by topic and sequentially within topic. Issues that have
comprehensive coverage and are extensive in length, such as H.R. 4850, have been kept together
as a subseries.
The Commerce subseries dates from the 101st and the 102nd congresses, 1990-1992, and
represents files and reference material maintained by Carper's staff which focus almost exclusively
on telecommunications topics. Included are files on such issues as cellular phones, caller
identification, cable television, and children's television. The Norfolk Southern-Coastal Barge
Transfer issue completes the series.
A significant portion of these files contains documents pertaining to the 1992 amendment
of the Communication Act of 1934. Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) introduced this
amendment, H.R. 4850, which was designed to address the performance of the cable industry and
the development of the video programming market since the 1984 passing of the Cable
Communications Policy Act. Intended to protect consumers from unreasonable rates by
improving the cable industry's customer service practices, and by sparking the development of a
competitive marketplace, H.R. 4850 attempted to provide customers with a stronger product
while simultaneously promoting a more competitive market. President Bush's veto of the bill, which passed
in the House and the Senate, was overridden by Congress.
A matter with direct consequences for Delaware is documented in the files pertaining to
the Norfolk Southern-Coastal Barge Transfer issue. In the early 1980s, Norfolk Southern
presented a challenge to Delaware's Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) by forcing the issue
of being allowed to transfer coal between barges in the Delaware Bay, a procedure known as
"topping off." The conflict went to court when Norfolk-Southern sued the state of Delaware for
rights to coal transfer activities. The issue was of importance to Delaware and its right as a state
to determine the kind of industrial activity it would allow along its coastal waters. In a letter to
Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldridge, Carper iterated Delaware's right to enforce its
Coastal Zone Management Act, which had in fact been approved by the Department of
Commerce, the very agent then assisting Norfolk Southern in their case against Delaware. Carper
questioned how Secretary Baldridge could allow this challenge to Delaware's CZMA when the
Secretary himself had ultimately approved the state's CZMA. This issue highlighted a direct
attack by a corporation on a state's right to control coastal activity on its own shores.