Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

The Communications Decency Act, DMCA, and Clipper Chip were all Democratic initiatives, too.


The CDA vote:

  Democrats: 30-16 in favor
  Republicans: 51-2 in favor (1 not voting)
Neither party looks good in that vote, but one party looks like it lacked even a significant principled minority...

The DMCA was a Republican initiative legislatively, but passed on an unopposed voice vote and was of course signed by Clinton. Cosponsored by 7 Republicans and 3 Democrats; drafted by the office of Howard Coble (R-NC), who also pushed it through the committee he chaired.

If you want to assign blame by overall party control, both laws, along with the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, were passed by a split government, with Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, and Democrats controlling the Presidency. So I guess they're "bipartisan achievements", for which we can thank the 1996-1998 "dream team" of Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and Trent Lott, who set an inspiring example in pushing through so much major legislation rather than letting themselves be mired in partisan gridlock.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: