Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Broadcast Flag Sneak Not Attempted

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the should-we-celebrate-that-someone-wasn't-a-jerk dept.

Trizero writes "THOMAS, one of the best sources for Congressional action on the Internet has shown that no amendments occured to the CJS Appropriations Bill. Monday, Slashdot covered the EFF announcing a rumor that a senator was attempting to sneak an amendment to bring the Broadcast Flag into law. From THOMAS (scroll down to the bottom): "6/21/2005: Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies. Approved for full committee consideration without amendment favorably." Translation: No one attempted to sneak the Broadcast flag into law." Update: 06/22 18:55 GMT by J : The EFF's new Activism Coordinator, Danny O'Brien, sees this as a victory for swift citizen action. Impressive numbers. Nice work by EFF and Public Knowledge, and everyone who raised their voice.

6 of 365 comments (clear)

  1. So what happened? by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 5, Interesting


    So, the Broadcast flag wasn't smuggled into law within the CJS appropriations bill, as threatened earlier.
    The question now is: why not?

    • Did the massive phone campaign advocated by Public Knowledge manage to dissuade the senators?
    • Did the senators decide against this course of action on their own?
    • Or was this just an unfounded rumor to begin with?

    Discuss.
    --
    ____

    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

    1. Re:So what happened? by NoMoreNicksLeft · · Score: 3, Interesting

      D) None of the above.

      Sneaking something into an appropriations bill, by definition, requires it be "sneaked"... impossible to do, if everyone knows about it. 3 weeks from now, 3 months from now, 3 years from now, there will be another bill, people won't be on guard for it, and it will return.

    2. Re:So what happened? by stiggle · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What is it with senators appending bills to others to try and get them passed.

      Surely if you are voting on a specific Bill then thats all you should be voting on - not "The Senate should buy more duck food for the ducks on the lake Bill" with the appended "Nuke Russia Bill" and "Give Hollywood and Microsoft everyone's firstborn Bill"

    3. Re:So what happened? by bhsx · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well, I can tell you that for the first time in my life, I called my Senator, Dick Durbin. I've used the EFF's (invaluable) fax service before; but I've never actually called. This, for me, could be a final straw in my belief of a failing system, you see; so it became that important to me. This is how the conversation went:
      bhsx: I'd like to know Senator Durbin's stance on the rumor of a ryder being added to the appropreations bill regarding the mandate of the broadcast flag.
      Nice, very professional sounding rep: You know, we just started hearing about this yesterday, and we really don't know enough about it to say, at this point.
      bhsx: Well, the rumor only broke yesterday. I voted for the Senator last election; and will rethink that vote if this happens.
      Nice, very professional sounding rep: We are taking a tally, we've gotten plenty of phone calls about this. Do I understand that you are against this possible ryder?
      bhsx: Yes, very much so...
      Nice, very professional sounding rep: That does seem to be the concensus here sir, we will be looking at this very closely. Thank you for calling.
      Of course, Senator Durbin is eating crow over breaking Godwin's Law, so maybe he saw this as a possible platform for looking like the good guy again. Who know's why it happenned; but believe that every one of us here that faxed and phoned got heard. Keep up the good work everyone!

      --
      put the what in the where?
  2. Re:Poor senator by brwski · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What would be even better is a constitutional amendment which would require either that bills be limited to one item and one item alone (no riders, etc.), or that each and every provision to a bill would have to be voted on for it to be included. A great addition to either of those would be a limit on the number of laws allowed. If we fill up the number, an old one has to go. That would rock...

    brwski

    --

    brwski
    "Because without beer, things do not seem to go as well''

  3. Re:Poor senator by iabervon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We have that in Massachusetts. It's nice for avoiding riders, but it has certain problems: they can't pass a bill to tax one thing (e.g., gas) to fund a different thing (e.g., public transit), and it's therefore possible for one bill to pass and the other not. If the funding bill is first, opponents will say there isn't money to fund it. If the taxation bill is first, opponents will come up with more popular things to spend the money on.

    I think a better solution would be to have a quick process for undoing the effects of a rider. The day after passing a bill with a rider that wouldn't have passed as a bill by itself, anyone could propose repealing the rider, everyone would look at the rider and realize that it's something noteworthy that wasn't actually discussed at all, and they'd vote with no argument for keeping it (since no argument was initially raised for adding it). Chances are that such a bill would survive a presidental veto on general principle (or the threat of sneaking something nasty about the areas that fail to support it into the next popular bill).