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Hollings vs. McCain on Broadband and Copyrights
tabdelgawad writes "The Washington Post has a mostly speculative article on the effects of John McCain (R-AR) replacing Ernest 'Fritz' Hollings (D-SC) as chairman of the powerful senate Commerce Committee. Topics in the article include the future of pending broadband and copyright legislation as well as the Senate's relationship with the FCC. Best quote from the article belongs to ITAA president Harris Miller: 'If Jack Valenti had been around at the time of Gutenberg he would have organized the monks to come and burn down the printing press' :-)."
John McCain (R-AR)
AR? I thought McCain was an Arizona senator. That's AZ.
No sig for you.
Commerce Power Shift Could Shake Up Piracy, Broadband Debates
By David McGuire
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Monday, December 23, 2002; 7:47 AM
As the newly Republican Senate prepares to take office in January, high-tech lobbyists are anxiously waiting to see how the power shift affects the measures they care about most. In the Commerce Committee, which holds sway over a clutch of high-tech issues, Arizona Republican John McCain's return to the chairmanship could shift the balance in key debates over broadband and electronic copyright protection.
The Commerce Committee has done little more than release a brief statement detailing its plans for early 2003, promising examinations of spectrum policy, media takeovers, cable rates, broadband rules, telecom competition and intellectual property law. But staff members won't discuss McCain's positions on these topics.
McCain has a record of fighting passionate yet sometimes unsuccessful battles against legislative juggernauts that often originated in his own party, but tech industry lobbyists said that he is a shrewd practitioner of compromise and may bring that art to some of the most difficult debates facing the technology industry.
The Yankee Group, a Boston-based research firm, described McCain's approach to broadband policy as "pragmatic deregulation." One of McCain's staffers noted that while the senator believes in free competition, he favors "consumer interests above special interests."
Reed Hundt, who headed up the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997, said McCain's return to power on the committee wouldn't benefit any single group.
"He's pretty much an eclectic mix of policies when it comes to the FCC," Hundt said. "When I was at the FCC he was probably my best friend on 50 percent of the issues I cared about."
McCain in some ways occupies the opposite pole from outgoing Chairman Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D-S.C.), a vital ally to those on his side of the ideological fence, and a fierce enemy to anyone on the other side.
That is not to say that the two men are completely different. Both are stalwart supporters of their parties, though McCain has frustrated and bedeviled many of his Senate Republican colleagues by bucking the party platform on big-money issues like campaign finance and tobacco. Hollings has tested the patience of senators of both parties because of his ardent, and usually intractable opinions on technology issues.
Each in his position on the committee has used the unique power that committee chairmen wield, but the technology industry in 2003 is preparing to focus on McCain, who could become the most powerful arbiter of the fates of telecommunications rules and the future of copyright and intellectual property on the Internet.
Booming Voices in Broadband
In the just-concluded session, the Commerce Committee considered several bills to make it easier for the traditional local phone companies -- the Baby Bells -- to sell high-speed digital subscriber-line services wherever they want. Hollings, a supporter of the long-distance companies and smaller firms that compete against the Bells, was no fan. When he was chairman, none of the proposals made it through the committee.
The Tauzin-Dingell Bill, named for Reps. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.) and John Dingell (D-Mich.), was the most prominent legislation that Hollings helped squelch. It would have removed many of the regulations that stand between the Bells and the nationwide high-speed Internet access market.
After passing the House of Representatives, it ran into Hollings, who buried it. Some telecom industry representatives predicted that McCain will consign it to history and take another approach.
"The question is whether Sen. McCain would be more interested in drafting some kind of a compromise," said John Windhausen, president of the Association for Local Telecommunications Services (ALTS).
McCain last year took a stab at a compromise that gave the Baby Bells more freedom, but required them to make their services available to rural areas and places often considered poor investments. Hollings kept the bill down, instead writing legislation that would have authorized hundreds of millions of dollars in government handouts for broadband deployment without getting rid of any regulations.
U.S. Telecommunications Association (USTA) spokeswoman Allison Remsen said McCain's traditional stance on business matters favors Tauzin-Dingell supporters.
"I think he brings a different approach to the committee," Remsen said. "I think that he is going to look at the issues from more of a market-based approach and favors that over trying to heavily regulate competition."
Michael Boland, Verizon's senior lobbyist, said that the tussle between Hollings and the Tauzin-Dingell bill's supporters led to a deadlock on broadband.
Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), said that supporters of deregulation should not cheer too loudly. Any one senator has enough power to put a "hold" on a bill, Miller said, noting that Hollings and other foes of deregulation still could wield a big stick.
Former FCC Chairman Hundt said he doubted that the Hollings-McCain power shift would change the likelihood that lawmakers will take their own direct action on broadband in the next two years.
"It's a mixed bag if you're a Bell company or if you're AT&T," Hundt said of McCain. "It's not 'he's with us or he's against us."
Yankee Group Senior Analyst J.P. Gownder also warned that McCain is not a shoe-in for deregulation.
While he sees it as a useful tool, "he really is quite a populist," Gownder said. "He really wants to see the consumers benefit. When he sees deregulation to a bad deal for consumers he's really quite critical."
The FCC Connection
High-speed Internet access remains a congressional priority, but industry focus has shifted to the FCC, which is pushing for telecom deregulation along the lines of what what Tauzin and Dingell want.
FCC Chairman Michael Powell has argued that consumers have plenty of high-speed access choices, and that it's time to rethink -- and maybe eliminate -- some of the rules that keep the Bells' DSL services in restricted markets. No less an authority than President Bush said that the White House will abide by Powell's decision.
Powell has less to worry about now that Hollings is not only out of the Commerce chair, but also of his role as chief of the Appropriations subcommittee in charge of FCC funding. Sen. Judd Gregg, (R-N.H.) will take the helm of that subcommittee from Hollings, who as chairman had repeatedly threatened to slash the FCC's budget.
Foes of the Baby Bells said that Gregg is no enemy, but he isn't the staunch ally when it comes to battling the local phone monopolies that Hollings was.
"We see him as taking a moderate position, but we can't say whether he's leaning [more] to one side or another," said ALTS's Windhausen.
ALTS, has Gregg listed as a "three" on a one-to-five scale that rates how friendly lawmakers are to competitive carriers. Hollings earns the highest rating of "one."
Hollings also will lose his chairmanship of the Commerce subcommittee that oversees the FCC's "reauthorization" bills, which determine the commission's agenda and scope. Reauthorization does not always affect the commission's budget, but has proven an effective vehicle for the committee to step up its oversight of the commission.
Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) is expected to take the lead on the FCC's reauthorization, which is up this year, while Hollings likely will hold the ranking Democrat spot. Burns also has a higher opinion of Powell's deregulation tendencies than Hollings, noting in a press statement earlier this year "Powell's clear vision of where telecommunications needs to go in this country."
Although Hollings's threats to gut the FCC's funding were probably more hyperbolic than literal, they had the desired effect of slowing the pace of broadband deregulation, Gownder said.
"I think Michael Powell can certainly work with John McCain and vice versa," Gownder said.
Verizon's Boland added that Powell now "faces much less risk of congressional contravention so that he can now push his revisions of the current rules all the way through."
Guardian of Copyrights
If Hollings has been a tough opponent to the Bell companies, he has been seen as an ally to the movie studios and recording companies. McCain's return to the committee chair could herald a sea change in the debate.
Hollings's Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA) earned him the scorn of computer makers and free speech advocates because it would have forced them to include anti-digital copying devices in their products.
The opponents said the bill would transform their products into glorified DVD players, but Hollings heeded Hollywood and pushed hard to get the legislation passed.
"My intuitive sense is that it will have an effect, and one that Hollywood won't be that happy about," said Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn. "If the Chairman is the champion of your bill and he's no longer the chairman, obviously that takes the wind out of the sails over your bill."
Public Knowledge is one of many public interest groups that opposes Hollings's proposal, saying it threatens the consumer's right to "fair use" of copyrighted works, like making a personal copy of an album or a videocassette.
Sohn said the Hollings legislation probably wouldn't fit in with McCain's other policy stances. "McCain is generally deregulatory and that's good news for the opponents of this bill because it's as regulatory as it (gets)," Sohn said.
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) President Jack Valenti -- one of the most vocal supporters of efforts to bolster copyright protection -- said the Senate shift wouldn't hurt that cause.
"I don't think it affects the debate at all. The change in chairmanship does not affect the need to protect creative works from piracy," Valenti said.
The ITAA's Miller said the party swap could provide a small boon to opponents of the Hollings bill, but that its supporters still will push hard for it.
"I never want to underestimate the (MPAA's) ability to lobby these issues," Miller said. "If Jack Valenti had been around at the time of Gutenberg he would have organized the monks to come and burn down the printing press."
McCain, however, remains the big question mark.
"I don't think McCain is seen as being particularly dogmatic on the issue on one side or other," Miller said. "McCain is obviously skeptical about government mandating industry standards, but the (type of) thing he feels zealous about is campaign finance reform, not necessarily beating up Hollywood or alternatively beating up the Internet.
"A committee chairman can be a major point of obstruction if he says 'this is not going through me.' A chairman who feels strongly about an issue can be a difficult rock to climb over," he added.
If a chairman is a strong opponent of legislation that must pass through his committee, he or she often might squelch the measure, even if it is popular among a majority of lawmakers. Committee chairmen can also champion less popular causes that might not receive congressional attention without their patronage.
McCain's unwillingness to be pigeonholed on pet issues makes it difficult to predict how he'll address them, observers said.
"That's the fear for all of us. We don't know where McCain is going to come out on these issues." Windhausen said.
-- washingtonpost.com Staff Writer Robert MacMillan contributed to this report.
Neither organization would consider McCain's 2001 year to be "highly conservative." The American Conservative Union rates senators on this page. A higher rating means more conservative. For example, Arizona Republican John Kyl scores a 100 (very conservative) while California Democrat Barbara Boxer scores a 0 (very liberal). Senator McCain scored a 68 in 2001. In 2000 he scored 81 and his lifetime rating is 84. He is obviously becoming more liberal by these ratings.
McCain wasn't the lowest scoring Republican, as Sen. Spector from PA and both the Maine senators scored lower. McCain also scored higher than any democrat, the most conservative of whom is GA's Miller, with a score of 60. For reference, Sen. Lott scored 96 and Sen. Frist scored 100, while Sen. Daschle scored an 8 and Sen. Kennedy scored 4. So, by ACU standards, he is one of the more liberal Republicans in the Senate, though he should not be called a liberal.
The Americans for Democratic Action have a similar system, but they score it oppositely: a rating of 0 = very conservative and a rating of 100 = very liberal. You can see a .PDF file of the 2001 ratings on this page. Sen. McCain scored a 40, higher than the lowest Democrat (Sen. Miller of GA) who scored a 35. By ADA reckoning, McCain was tied for the most liberal Republican Senator (with Spector (PA) and Sen. Snowe (ME)).
His Stances and choices usually support what the Democrats want, and often exceeds their wildest dreams.
Give us some examples.
The McCain-Feingold-Cochran Campaign Reform Act. This act was assailed by many conservatives as being unconstitutional and giving incumbants free reign in their campaigns.
Only 2 things are non republican about him.
1.) He is not aligned with the christian coalition or at least honestly admits that he disagrees with him. Most republicans will say they are christians when they are not so they will get funding from them.
2.) He hates corruption and believes both political parties work for the American people and not special interests or corporations. He only strikes down republican bills if there is alot of pork spending.
Big tobacco tried to oust McCain and even ran very negative campaign ads when no election was around!
Why? Because McCain supported the right of consumers and the government to sue big tobacco companies for increasing health care costs. He did not take this position to be an all lets save everyone liberal but hundreds of millions of taxpayer money is spent on healthcare for smoke related health issues.
McCain voted for a huge tax on big tobacco to make the difference for the costs. Many enemies in the republican party as well as lobbiests for Philip-Moris painted McCain as a big spending liberal. Behind closed doors all of McCains republican colleagues told him that Philip-morris would run negative campaign ads during the current non election year and give money to the democrats if they voted with him. His colleagues had no option but vote in favor of big tobacco. This angered McCain so much that he began to investigate the effects of soft-money had on our government. This is why he used it during the 2000 campaign.
The other time McCain got in trouble was a big pork spending bill that would benefit the then leader Trent Lotts home district. Lott wanted to buy yet more warships that the navy specifically requested it did not want because they had too many ships and too few crewman to run them. McCain attacked Lott as a spender and things got nasty. In the end the ship was built for over 100 million of our tax dollars.
McCain hates special interests and corruption and I am so thankful he will head the committee. He will care about our needs and will not buckle under pressure from the RIAA or MPAA. Republicans stronly believed in individual rights while liberals believed in group rights and big government. McCain I believe is our man.
http://saveie6.com/