By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  June 28th at 12:30 AM  | 

John McCain. Lisa Murkowski. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Saxby Chambliss. Richard Burr. Dan Coats. No, I’m not listing the centrist wing of the Senate Republicans. I’m listing some of the co-sponsors of SECURE IT, the bill that Senate Republicans have been forced to bring forth because the extremist Cybersecurity bill by Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins just couldn’t be bargained with. That’s right, John McCain of | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  April 28th at 01:30 AM  | 

So, the Internet died this week or something. CISPA was amended much, as I gather mostly tightening up some alleged privacy concerns. Then it passed the House. I don’t know if it’ll become law, but it’s a good idea. The comparisons with SOPA are deceptive. Speaker Boehner cut to the heart of the matter, pointing out that President Obama’s CISPA veto threat was rooted in | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  April 26th at 02:20 AM  | 

In an example of lucky timing, the GSA scandal proved why Darrell Issa’s DATA act was needed. Transparency in government allows for oversight. So the bill passed the House by voice vote. I first floated a while back the idea that this sudden, strident CISPA opposition was roote d in a desire to distract the public from the much stronger and more dangerous Lieberman-Collins bill | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  April 23rd at 11:45 PM  | 

What’s the ideal situation for the cable television marketplace? A free market. Cable providers should be able to negotiate, or not, with broadcasters and copyright holders to purchase streams to resell to their customers. Jim DeMint is trying to bring us closer to that by ending special leverage in the marketplace given to broadcasters. You see, the rules in place now are not designed to | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  April 18th at 11:30 PM  | 

Yup, CISPA is still the top story. It will improve our security, which matters in an age of Chinese and Anarchist Internet attacks. And unlike Lieberman-Collins, Which is the bill being pushed in the Senate, no government power grab is involved. So the House is right to challenge the President’s push for Lieberman-Collins. Lungren’s PRECISE Act is another bill that would create no new regulations. | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  April 17th at 12:00 AM  | 

How harmless is CISPA? Despite irrational attacks by association, because we’re apparently supposed to think Republican bills bad, even though the Democrats in the Senate had kept PROTECT IP alive months before Lamar Smith brought SOPA to committee, CISPA has already has been modified to remove mention of copyright infringement. And yet the rage continues. I figured it out, though. The reason CISPA, a previously | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  April 10th at 12:30 AM  | 

Monday night, as promised, we still have some catch up work to do. So let’s start with those Amazon Taxes, those Internet sales taxes of dubious Constitutionality. Colorado’s got tossed in federal court and Illinois’s didn’t raise any money. Obeying the Constitution counts, folks. Pass a true interstate compact through the Congress first. Also as promised, there’s the matter of the Next Generation Television Marketplace | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  April 7th at 02:30 AM  | 

I’m back, having gotten myself and my worldly possessions from southern California to northern Virginia. I also have a backlog of items that I’m never going to cover completely tonight, so some issues are going to wait until Monday. So please, check back Monday. There are things I’d love to cover tonight, but I simply lack the time. Let’s start with Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 29th at 02:30 AM  | 

FCC reform advances in the House. Greg Walden’s FCC Process Reform Act is a needed bill, so I’m glad that it went from committee to the floor, and took minimal modification in passing. I like that it got an extra poke at FCC being more closed on FOIA requests than even CIA. Locking in the reforms is important, and CTIA is right in saying we | Read More »

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  March 25th at 10:39 PM  | 

It’s another week in Washington, and it’s yet another bailout.  This time, taxpayers will be tapped for another $41 billion to subsidize the healthcare retirement benefits of postal workers – benefits that are quite scarce in the private sector. Democrats have a serious problem with creative destruction and advancements in technology.  For self-described progressives, they are quite regressive when it comes to efficiency in markets | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 22nd at 03:30 AM  | 

Previously on Tech at Night I linked to a story that suggested there was a split between Darrell Issa and Chuck Grassley on FCC transparency. It turns out the story I relied on, had it wrong. Oversight wasn’t grading transparency itself; the committee was grading the management of FOIA requests, and FCC did relatively well by having established processes for dealing with FOIA. and tracking | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 20th at 03:30 AM  | 

The House is doing anything but shirking its responsibility to apply oversight to the Obama administration. The FCC in particular is getting the attention it needs. “Regulatory hubris” in picking winners and losers is part of the problem, says Commissioner Robert McDowell. He should know, as he’s on the inside. Darrell Issa and Chuck Grassley disagree on the FCC’s transparency though. Issa gives them a | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 6th at 02:00 AM  | 

Great news! Tech at Night’s favorite Representative Marsha Blackburn, along with TaN’s own home representative Mary Bono Mack are bringing a version of Secure IT to the House. The bill has been introduced in the Senate as an alternative to the power grab known as Lieberman-Collins. The great thing about the bill? It toughens criminal penalties for online lawbreaking even as it makes it easier | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 2nd at 03:00 AM  | 

Harry Reid may be on a mad dash to bring the radical Liebmerman/Collins/Rockefeller cybersecurity bill, but a broad spectrum of Republicans continue to fight. Democrats may have toned down its Internet Kill Switch provisions, but still is a massive power grab online, and the new SECURE IT act is a much better idea. What I absolutely love about SECURE it is that it hits all | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  February 18th at 04:00 AM  | 

The big stories this week continue to be LightSquared and cybersecurity. Even as House Democrats complain about government doing too much, incredibly, we see that Senate Democrats are so inflexible that John McCain is in a gang of Republicans to fight the Democrats on the cybersecurity bill. Consider that. That’s how extreme Harry Reid, Joe Lieberman, Jay Rockefeller, and Susan Collins are on this. John | Read More »