Thursday, May 25, 2006
Victory for Net Neutrality: Battle but not War
Today's House Judiciary Committee vote 20-13 on the Sensenbrenner-Conyers Network Neutrality Bill was a huge victory. Such a vote would have been inconceivable a month or six weeks ago. My hat is off to the folks at the Save The Internet Coalition! Such great work!!! My hat is off.
It was a bipartisan victory, with six Republicans and 14 Democrats voting Aye. All the No votes came from Republicans. One cowardly Democrat, Representative Delahunt from my home turf, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, voted "present."
This is but one battle in a long war. There will be a bigger fight when this bill and the Barton-Rush COPE bill come to the House floor. Then there's the Stevens bill in the Senate with no Network Neutrality language whatsoever.
Then, if Barton-Rush passes in the House and Stevens passes in the Senate, the bills go to Conference Committee, which, technically, is to iron out differences between House and Senate versions, but in actuality can decide independently major items of the reworked bill. I don't quite understand it all, but once the conference committee works it over, the re-vote on the House and Senate floors is all but assured. The safest course is to keep at least one of the telecom bills from coming to the floor.
One thing is now clear! Network Neutrality is not geeky and hard to understand anymore. It is about Internet Freedom.
It was a bipartisan victory, with six Republicans and 14 Democrats voting Aye. All the No votes came from Republicans. One cowardly Democrat, Representative Delahunt from my home turf, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, voted "present."
This is but one battle in a long war. There will be a bigger fight when this bill and the Barton-Rush COPE bill come to the House floor. Then there's the Stevens bill in the Senate with no Network Neutrality language whatsoever.
Then, if Barton-Rush passes in the House and Stevens passes in the Senate, the bills go to Conference Committee, which, technically, is to iron out differences between House and Senate versions, but in actuality can decide independently major items of the reworked bill. I don't quite understand it all, but once the conference committee works it over, the re-vote on the House and Senate floors is all but assured. The safest course is to keep at least one of the telecom bills from coming to the floor.
One thing is now clear! Network Neutrality is not geeky and hard to understand anymore. It is about Internet Freedom.
Technorati Tags: F2C, NetworkNeutrality
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