Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman, and I would just like to draw your attention to several points. First of all, we had a very open process with hearings in the Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee, and this issue didn't come up. We had a markup in the subcommittee, and there were no amendments offered of this nature. We had a markup in the full committee, and there were no amendments offered. We had an opportunity for all Members to offer amendments on the floor, where they could be thoughtfully debated, and this amendment was not put in this context. Now it suddenly appears before us at the last minute of this day. So it would have been helpful to have been able to have had this discussion because many of us share the concern that the gentleman is talking about. I think it's awful that employers think they can demand our passwords and can go snooping around. There is no disagreement with that. Here is the flaw: Your amendment doesn't protect them. It doesn't do that. Actually, what this amendment does is say that all of the reforms that we are trying to put in place at the Federal Communications Commission, in order to have them have an open and transparent process where they are required to publish their rules in advance so that you can see what they're proposing, would basically be shoved aside. They could do whatever they wanted on privacy if they wanted to, and you wouldn't know it until they published their text afterward. There is no protection here.…”