Ok, so yesterday I posted the witness list for today's Net Neutrality/Broadband hearing. I could have woken up at 5am to beat the line standers and get a seat with the lobbyists who pay people to stand in line for them in the halls of the Rayburn building, but I didn't.
I could be listening on the Audio Webcast. I tuned in for about 10 minutes, and haven't been impressed yet. I've got other projects, other things to work on, so I'm listening but my attention has not been caught. Why? Have you ever turned on your favorite TV show expecting a new episode and instead getting a rerun, or worse yet, a 3 hour extended version of American Idol? You know what you'll be seeing and hearing. No surprises, nothing to discuss with your friends. Just the same, this hearing, despite a few new faces, was a rerun in a series over the past year or so, including a few at the FCC.
We know who the players are and what the plot will be. I'd rather just spend my time working on the things that I can't predict than sit through hours of talking, when instead I can read my good friend Drew Clark or Andrew Noyes' (of Tech Daily Dose/CongressDaily fame), aka "That Other Andrew (tm)" or one of his colleagues write an excellent summary of what I already know is going to happen. Just think about this...
What was I going to learn from these hearings? I already know what the witness list is about. I know Chairman Markey is for Net Neutrality and is concerned about our national Broadband (non) strategy. I also know where most of the other Members of the Subcommittee, and if I did enough digging, the full Energy and Commerce Committee, stand on both these issues. I also know that it's May of an Election Year, and that even if this bill sails through Markey's subcommittee, that unlike on Judiciary, where Howard Berman's PRO-IP Act was also heavily favored by the Chairman (John Conyers (D-MI)), E&C Chairman Dingell isn't going to step on any toes to schedule a full Committee hearing or vote on this bill.
Nor will Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) or Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) allow it to hit the floor, since the Congress hasn't even managed to get a proper budget through and will spend the rest of the year with pre-election posturing and meaningless resolutions and amendments, while the Republicans will hammer away with Motions to Recommit on every bill that the leadership schedules, slowing the process to a crawl. I'd be surprised if we don't end the year operating on Continuing Resolutions without a budget in hand until the next Congress is sworn. Anyone want to take bets?
Instead, I'm going to save my energy for the set of hearings which will matter: when the full Committee meets to talk to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin (R) aka "K-Mart." over the year-long investigation that has described his leadership as leaving the Commission "broken." I'm going to watch the outcome of this Verizon-Google tiff over the 700Mhz auction, since it might resolve what "Reasonable Network Management" means before Comcast has a chance to lobby it to death.
I'm going to see how this Sprint/T-Mobile merger plays out and if anything happens with White Spaces.
The other night I was on a really, really lagged webcast with Erin Kotecki Vest who kept asking me about "tech policy," I was so lagged that I sounded drunk despite me holding a diet coke to her multiple glasses of wine (Erin is great though, you should read her blog). Here's a tech policy problem: we have ZERO strategy to get more broadband into consumers' hands. We're 12th in the ITU rankings, and the President seems to think that's OK. Check out Drew Clark's Broadband Census (that's broadbandcensus.com, sorry Drew) and see how it really is. South Korean kids have more access than we do. Doesn't that bother anyone?
That hearing going on? Big Media will complain about Piracy, Big Cable will complain about being overregulated and preach at the altar of the "free market," and a few noble people (even the Christian Coalition is on the side of good here) will plead for some kind of Net Neutrality.
But like a rerun, we already know how it will end.
Let me know when the new episodes begin.
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