Watch the Debate on HB 6456 (franchising / possibly net neutrality)

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UPDATE:

Matt Ferguson writes:

Floor statement from Sen. Patty Birkholz (R-Saugatuck). Taped and will transcribe later. Says Google wanted a net neutrality clause, but ultimately decided they didn't want to derail the whole bill.

Both Birkholz and Sen. Gilda Jacobs (D) pulled their amendments dealing with net neutrality. The issue never even came up for a vote.
Birkholz says the Governor has promised to take up net neutrality on its own in the next session.

The bill passed 26-12 with no net neutrality provision. I'm inclined to believe that the Governor is going to follow through with this. Then again, given the posturing of the various sides at the national level, people who are pessimistic about it are more than justified in not counting on net neutrality legislation next session.

SECOND UPDATE:

Matt at Michlib transcribed Rep. Birkholz's floor statement:

Thank you, Mr. President. As we have had some very deliberative debates today on this huge issue before us, I wanted to remind my members about the net neutrality issue - and how important it is to consumers across the state, especially those in the more rural and suburban areas.

Yes, this needs to be addressed by the federal government. Yes, the federal government is working on it, but, as we know the federal government lately has been very slow to react to states' needs and we as states have found ourselves leading the federal government - not behind them in the parade. Unfortunately, we do not have the net neutrality amendment on this bill. But it is still very important to look at in the future. It's become known as the Google amendment - and they feel very strongly that Michigan needs to insure consumers' access to all forms of video services - not just those that are offered by cable and phone companies. But they have also indicated their support of increased competition for Michigan consumers and decided that they had no desire to derail the whole process.

So, in deference to them and to my constituents who have e-mailed me and snail-mailed me, and phoned me about this very issue, because they feel so strongly, I have decided that I would not put the amendment on as you know.

We've also been in contact with the governor's office, and it's my understand that the governor's office has suggested to Google and the other supporters of net neutrality, that they will pick up the bill again next year in standalone legislation.

Therefore I did not put the amendment on, but I want members to be aware of the fact that this is a huge issue facing us and we need to continue working on it in the future.

Thank you for your support.

Fascinating...

UPDATE 3:

Matt Stoller updated MyDD readers with the results of the MI Senate vote on HB 6456. See our discussion on the way the Michigan and national progressive blogs reacted to this issue for more information.

Although the vote is now over, we can use this as a learning experience to more effectively confront these kinds of challenges in the future.

On my end, I should have spent a lot more time trying to understand net neutrality and cable franchising from a political standpoint before even beginning to speak on this issue. There were political dynamics taking place here that I was completely oblivious to (mainly due to my own recent time constraints), and that had a significant impact on my ability to talk about this authoritatively.

Now, we need to determine what we want to do to rectify the situation. Assuming we want to continue to pursue this, it means stuff like getting a commitment from the governor to push for net neutrality at the state level, lobbying John Dingell and John Conyers to bring it to the agenda at the national level, and holding the phone/cable companies accountable (especially on the "jobs" ploy).

Although not including net neutrality in this bill sets a bad precedent for other states, I have hope that net neutrality can still be introduced in Michigan. I believe that Granholm is going to come out strong on net neutrality, and by taking back the House we have a much better shot at getting it done.

UPDATE 4: Everyone who has been following this issue needs to see matt's post on what happened with net neutrality in the Michigan State House today. I agree -- we got a very late start, and just ran out of time before we could even get our bearings.