Thank you, Chairman Tauzin.

Today we are discussing legislation in which we in Congress are trying to prevent a revolutionary way of business from being strangled by outdated laws. Specifically, this legislation updates the law by declaring that electronic signatures will be deemed valid.

Mr. Chairman, this legislation extends the principle of electronic authentication we established last Congress with the passage of my legislation entitled the Government Paperwork Elimination Act. That law requires the federal government to accept electronic signatures. We now seek to extend that advancement to the commercial world.

The Internet has introduced many new buzzwords into our vocabulary, words like the browser, Webpage, and E-mail.

The newest term is "E-commerce."

The projections for the growth of E-commerce and its effect on the global economy are staggering.

Last year shoppers spent an estimated $9 billion dollars buying products online.

Business-to-businesses E-commerce was nearly five times greater than e-commerce in the consumer market, reaching $43 billion dollars just last year.

By the year 2003, Forrester Research predicts business-to-business electronic commerce will climb to $1.3 trillion dollars, constituting nearly 10% of all U.S. business trade.

Not only are the Fortune 500 companies taking advantage of this new way of doing and transacting business, but it offers an extraordinary opportunity to over 5 million small businesses in our country.

Not long ago, small businesses like the jewelry repair store my father owned in New Brittain, Connecticut were limited to doing business in the community they were located in. Now with a web page and some creative marketing, a store in New Brittain, Connecticut may be fixing watches sent all the way from Palo Alto, California.

Or, jewelry stores in Connecticut may be selling their products to department stores in California.

The E-commerce bill I introduced and the bill before us today are attempts to make sure our laws permit the jewelry store in Connecticut and the department store in California to do business by utilizing the latest form of signature, electronic signatures.

Both bills aim to ensure that those conducting business online and who choose to sign electronic contracts with electronic signatures will be able to do so with legal certainty.

Many states have already passed legislation allowing for the acceptance of electronic signatures. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a confusing maze of state laws that hamper interstate commerce.

The states have been working on developing a uniform, model law to create one standard for acceptance of electronic signatures in contracts -- similar to what the Uniform Commercial Code accomplished for contract law. It is expected to be completed soon and offered to the 50 state legislatures for adoption.

The bill I introduced- and the one we are discussing today bridges the gap from now until the 50th state has passed a version of this model law by preempting the existing confusion of multiple state laws.

In fact, identical bi-partisan legislation to mine introduced in the Senate has already been endorsed by state governments and industry alike. I'm concerned that the bill we are discussing today is heavy-handed in implementing a two-year deadline on states and would inappropriately give the Secretary of Commerce the ability to enjoin state laws.

I look forward to discussing with the panelists today their impression of the section in question, Section 102 of H.R. 1714.

I'm pleased that the Chairman of the full Committee agrees that this issue deserves the Commerce Committee's attention, and I look forward to working with him and you, Chairman Tauzin, on improving this legislation.