bytes and ballots

The Computer and Communication Industry Association has released an analysis of roll call votes in the 109th Congress, focusing on legislation of interest to high-tech companies:

CIA’s High-Tech Scorecard examined seven important votes in the House of Representatives where, o­n average, Members voted with industry and consumers about 60% of the time. Congress failed to move o­n numerous bills of critical importance to high-tech companies. Patent and copyright reform in particular got short shrift, even as junk patents impeded innovators everywhere and outdated copyright laws threatened to cripple the next generation of new media devices.

In the Senate there were too few votes of significance to assemble a useful scorecard for the upper chamber.

“We had some good moments, but this Congress was a real disappointment,” CCIA President & CEO Ed Black said. “Technology is more important than ever, yet our interests and those of the consumers were not addressed and too often sacrificed to election-year politics. The very foundation of our economy is at stake. We hope the 110th Congress will do better.”

On a bright note, CCIA would like to highlight and applaud the Representatives who received perfect scores:
* Rep. Berman (CA-28)
* Rep. Blumenauer (OR-03)
* Rep. Boucher (VA-09)
* Rep. Capuano (MA-08)
* Rep. Eshoo (CA-14)
* Rep. Honda (CA-15)
* Rep. Hoyer (MD-05)
* Rep. Kind (WI-05)
* Rep. Lofgren (CA-16)
* Rep. Murtha (PA-12)
* Rep. Smith (WA-02)
* Rep. Thompson (CA-01)
* Rep. Udall (CO-02)
* Rep. Woolsey (CA-06)
* Rep. Harman (CA-36)

My own congressman, Adam Schiff --- who represents the Pasadena-area and Caltech --- did relatively well overall, getting a 71% score in the CCIA index.