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 McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, and McCain-Lieberman couldn’t find a way to negotiate a compromise on this.
It’s the right bill to pass. It’s since gotten oversight champion Chuck Grassley and TEA Party favorite Ron Johnson on board, among others. It addresses the key security problems we face without giving the proven-incompetent feds any new powers over the Internet. Here’s KBH on the bill.
Let’s face it, the government stinks on cybersecurity. That’s why The FTC attempting an honor killing of Wyndham, blaming the victim of a cybersecurity attack.
Remember: the same forces pushing for big government ‘net neutrality’ today, restricting innovation and choice, also opposed pay TV, which would have left us with few options.
So let’s hope innovation continues, and the secondary spectrum market is opened up, so that we can get new things like LTE roaming.
Getting that may mean regulating the FCC itself as Greg Walden and Fred Upton want to do.
Of course, speaking of pay TV, it’s time we deregulated that, too, and allowed everyone involved more choice for a more effective marketplace for the public.
House Oversight wizard Darrell Issa is at it yet again, now pushing Ron Kirk to open up Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations to him. I doubt Kirk will do this, but it sets the table.