{"id":9986,"date":"2022-02-04T23:59:05","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T23:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/04\/house-votes-for-competes-act-even-with-its-problems-almost-entirely-on-party-lines\/"},"modified":"2022-02-04T23:59:05","modified_gmt":"2022-02-04T23:59:05","slug":"house-votes-for-competes-act-even-with-its-problems-almost-entirely-on-party-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/04\/house-votes-for-competes-act-even-with-its-problems-almost-entirely-on-party-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"House Votes For COMPETES Act, Even With Its Problems, Almost Entirely On Party Lines"},"content":{"rendered":"

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from the that’s-too-bad<\/i> dept<\/h3>\n

\nCongress is trying to overload anyone who supports an open internet with terrible bill after terrible bill. Last week, they brought out<\/a> the “COMPETES Act” (renamed from Endless Frontiers which had already been renamed as “USICA” and then became COMPETES). The underlying concept of the bill actually is important — reviving American innovation. The Senate version of the bill was mostly good and had broad bipartisan support. However, for reasons I don’t understand, Nancy Pelosi allowed the bill to be loaded up with a bunch of items on the Democrats’ wish list, including the ridiculously dangerous SHOP SAFE Act<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis week, of course, we’ve been stuck dealing with the reintroduction of the also terrible EARN IT Act<\/a> in the Senate, and while all of the open internet activists were gearing up to fight that, the House went ahead and voted to approve the COMPETES Act<\/a> with no changes. It was an almost<\/em> strict party-line vote, ending up at 222 for and 210 against. One Democrat — Rep. Stephanie Murphy — voted against it, and one Republican — Rep. Adam Kinzinger (who technically<\/em> is still a Republican<\/a>) voted for it.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis all seems so incredibly counterproductive by Pelosi and the Democrats. I know they want a “win” and when there’s a bill that will move they feel they need to hang all sorts of gifts on it, but following the Senate’s lead and coming up with a more reasonable bill that wasn’t stuff full of bad ideas would have presented this as an actually interesting and useful bill, rather than turning it into a partisan thing. Politics is where policy goes to die. And, unfortunately, it may take parts of the open internet with it.\n<\/p>\n

\nThat said, the Senate version does not have the nonsense and dangerous SHOP SAFE bill attached, and the hope<\/em> is that during the conference process where the House and Senate try to square up the different bills, SHOP SAFE will get left on the cutting room floor, where it belongs.\n<\/p>\n

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Filed Under: competes act<\/a>, competition<\/a>, innovation<\/a>, jerry nadler<\/a>, liability<\/a>, nancy pelosi<\/a>, shop safe<\/a>, trademarks<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n