Some Temporary Good News: None Of The Really Bad Internet Bills Seem To Have Made It Into The NDAA
from the now-the-omnibus dept
Phew. As we’ve noted over the past few weeks, there’s been a big push by some in Congress over the last couple of weeks to sneak in some really terrible bills, among them JCPA, KOSA, INFORM, and SHOP SAFE. We’ve covered the problems with each of these bills and the very serious problem with trying to slip them into year end “must pass” bills like the NDAA, often skipping over several levels of congressional process while doing so.
Last night Congress came to an agreement on the NDAA and released a 4400 page draft. And, somewhat amazingly, none of the bills we talked about ended up making it in! Much of this was due to people speaking out and calling their Senators and Representatives.
It’s a stupid, stupid process, but because of the nature of it, Congress will often try to slip in “non-controversial” bills just to get them over the finish line. All the talk and buzz over the last few weeks about these bills was really Congress “testing the waters” to see if they could sneak the bills through this way. People speaking up made it clear that including them would create controversy, and thus helped keep them out of this bill.
Of course, I’m sure there’s a lot of other garbage in the bill as well (there always is), but for the moment, the worst bills that we were most concerned with seem to have been kept out.
That said, this congressional session isn’t over yet, and there’s still the other big year end “must pass” bill: the omnibus spending bill. That one is also prone to adding questionable laws like these. Hopefully the controversy from this past week about them will help keep them out of the next bill as well… but we can’t be sure until the bill is finally released.
Filed Under: congress, inform act, jcpa, kosa, ndaa, shop safe
Comments on “Some Temporary Good News: None Of The Really Bad Internet Bills Seem To Have Made It Into The NDAA”
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Appreciation
Thank you Senator Cotton for leading the charge.
That is and encyclopedia length bill, so I doubt that any single person knows what is in that bill, and it will take a month or more of dedicate reading to look at its content.
I think there ought to be a law limiting the length of bills and with a requirement of type size.
Re:
The law limiting bill length would be extremely long, thus it would have to murder its own grandparents.
Re: Because of the Filibuster
The reason we get these titantic sized bills is because of the filibuster. The individual bills won’t muster the 60 votes to over-ride the filibuster, so if there is any chance to pass something, they have to stuff it into a “must pass” bill.
Its yet another way the filibuster causes bad government. The democrats *could* repeal the filibuster with just 51 votes (or even just 50+Harris). But they are too timid to do the right thing.
Re: Because of the Filibuster
The reason we get these titanic sized bills is because of the filibuster. Most individual bills, good or bad, won’t muster the 60 votes to over-ride the filibuster, so if there is any chance to pass something, they have to stuff it into a “must pass” bill.
Its yet another way the filibuster causes bad government. The democrats *could* repeal the filibuster with just 51 votes (or even just 50+Harris). But they are too timid to do the right thing.
That sounds familiar
It should be a capital crime that any legislator who votes on a bill not knowing what exactly is in that bill.
Just think of the savings on pensions.
Re: stupid pun
It’s more like a Capitol crime.
HOLY SHIT
I’m pleasantly surprised
Working together
I will say it now. It’s amazing when the right and left voters or protestors work together we can stop the bipartisan politicians. We have to work together. When we do these internet bills go down in flames
The Trans Pacific partnership
SOPA/PIPA
JCPA
BOTH SIDES WORKED TOGETHER AND GOT IT DONE. WE NEED TO WORK TOGETHER. Hopefully we can come together because when we do the lobbyist go down in flames
I would’ve said nothing (a.k.a not posting this article) because you know they aren’t about to go on holiday break without passing at least 1-2 of these bills, you just invited worsen disappointment. There’s 12 days left for something to pass, more if they decide to only go home for christmas then come back.
I’m assuming something is going to pass and need to take steps to route around their bs even if that means leaving the clearnet.
Re:
you just invited worsen disappointment.
Did we jinx it, too?
wtf even?