Rep. Blackburn says both parties have failed on tech

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) decried the failure of her own party to create a national agenda for technology policy during remarks at the State of the Net conference in Washington on Tuesday.

"We haven't laid out a vision for technology policy," she said, noting that Democrats have not done so either.

Blackburn said any vision for technology policy should not attempt to micromanage specific types of devices but instead address "the overall health of the business environment."

"Both Republicans and Democrats active on the tech policy front have hyper-focused on technology — or the delivery systems — as the be-all, end-all of tech policy without giving sufficient thought to what is driving the technology and its development," she said.

The failure of both parties to set a technology agenda has allowed negative policies to fill the void, she said.

"When Congress fails to move forward on an issue, bureaucracies step in," Blackburn said. She referred to an "alphabet soup" of regulators that businesses must face before they can get their efforts off the ground: the FCC, SEC, FTC.

Blackburn, the vice chairwoman of the Energy and Commerce trade subcommittee, laid out some priorities for tech policy in this session of Congress: patent reform, IP protection, privacy and repealing net-neutrality regulations.

On the last point, she said she expects the Federal Communications Commission to face "a congressional hurricane" as a result of Internet line rules in December.

Legislation halting the regulations will pass the House and Senate, she predicted.

She added that she "is not so sure" President Obama will attempt to veto such a bill since "more and more people are coming to agree on this issue."

Blackburn introduced a bill this month to stop the rules.