[1562] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
"Buy American" provisions in the NREN legislations
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dave Hughes)
Sat Nov 9 11:06:36 1991
Date: Sat, 9 Nov 1991 09:04:24 -0700
From: Dave Hughes <daveh@csn.org>
To: com-priv@psi.com
Brian Kahin makes a good point when he says that the NREN legislation
is a 'poor place' to argue Buy American language.
I am not so sure it is just 'subtleties of langauge' however. From
the beginning the White House (science advisor's remarks are my
source) said there was 'no need' for legislation. Just money. 'Ok,
Congress, just give us the bucks and we will spend it the way we
in the Administration see fit.' Thats seemed to be the theme. For
a while I thought it was tied to Presidential politics - that the
principal author, Sen Gore, Democrat, was a potential candidate for
President, and *he* could take credit for NREN during the race. But
he is not running, and the position remains the same.
So this is part of the whole Administration versus Congress battle
that goes on at just about every level.
I have looked for legislation that not only provided $$$, but
accountability. Without any regulatory mechanism built into the
legislation, without the idea of a "Corporation for Public
Networking" getting anywhere, (about the only institutional
solution short of an FCC type arrangement), this 'tell us what
you are doing' at least keeps the system somewhat accountable.
And it wouldn't make that much difference if this were not
seminal, precedence setting, steps into our national networked
future. But everybody, including me, seems to see NREN as a
watershed between narrowly specialized (defense, higher education,
advanced research), and general public (and I don't mean 'mass
market' - although Gore's speech on the floor of the Senate
pointed that way) access to information power. From the bottom
up, not just the top down.
