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Thursday, April 27, 2006

Tech outlobbied by Washington

Source: BusinessWeek

Well, Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey, Google, Yahoo et. al. failed to pull it off. In a vote of 34 to 22, the House Committee on Energy & Commerce rejected an amendment yesterday to a sweeping telecommunications law that would have prohibited discrimination when it comes to sending traffic over the Internet. The amendment would block the creation of a multilane "information highway," where network operators could give preference to their own content, or ensure speedier delivery to content providers that pay extra fees. Tech companies now pin their hopes on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which they're urging to set in motion competing legislation. You may think technology companies are powerful, but they're outsiders on Capitol Hill.