Politics Net Inscrutability
The Senate Commerce Committee is getting set to vote on the Snowe/Dorgan net neutrality amendment. The amendment, in cahoots with Rep. Jay Inslee’s excellent amendment in the House—would mandate that internet service companies cannot prioritize certain content providers over others. Maria Cantwell is on the Commerce Committe, and she has committed to vote for the Snowe/Dorgan amendment.
Yesterday, I asked the McGavick campaign where McGavick was on the Snowe/Dorgan amendment. They said net neutrality “isn’t something we’ve been asked about yet. We’ll call you back.â€
Later in the day, I Slogged it this:
I’m still waiting to hear back from the McGavick campaign to find out what McGavick’s position on net neutrality is. I gotta say, it’s a little startling that when I called McGavick’s campaign this morning, they weren’t prepared to talk about the issue yet. This is a major issue in the techie Puget Sound, with two of our Fortune 500 companies (Amazon and Microsoft) and one of our delegation (Rep. Jay Inslee), taking a leadership role on it. If McGavick wants to replace an incumbent senator like Cantwell, who has a reputation for being plugged in on techie issues, he better start doing his homework.
Today, McGavick’s press people forwarded me this statement from McGavick:
The public has a clear interest in the prevention of online content discrimination whether it is from companies seeking to unfairly squeeze out rivals, or the censorship of unfavorable opinions. I do have concerns about over-regulation, and Congress must always be very careful about regulating an industry in anticipation of a problem. Also, I do think that we will need to acknowledge future costs of internet infrastructure development, and who will pay for that build up. However, the internet occupies such a unique place in our lives that I’m open to some preventative measure to ensure that it remains a free, fair and neutral marketplace for ideas, products and services. I’m not certain that either the Snowe-Dorgan or the Stevens proposed amendments strike the appropriate balance between limited regulation and protection of a neutral internet. On this, as with so many other issues, the sides on each side of the argument are intensely polarized and as a result I fear that a true compromise may be impossible to reach at this point.
Sigh. I don’t know what this means. Does McGavick support the net neutrality amendment or not? Like, would he vote for the amendment?
No matter what side of the political fence you are on, net neutrality is a vital issue for us all. Remember, this is the issue that makes Move On PAC and the Christian Coalition team up. Everyone needs to call or write their elected leadership about this. Get off your rear ends and do it.