The coming of a new year is the perfect time to look back at on the last two years of our chairing ALEC’s Communications and Technology Task Force, and think about plans for next year.
We have learned a lot, and had many previous lessons reinforced, since we were handed the gavel of our Task Force. Perhaps one of the lessons most often reinforced is that when it comes to communications and technology policy, doing less often means getting more.
When we became Task Force chairs, we had a simple but ambitious goal: to be the premier forum for communications and technology policymaking in the states. To that end, we put on the agenda for the Task Force the same major issues that have been the hottest topics for debate in the states and our nation: online sales taxes, broadband stimulus grants, cybersecurity, biometrics, government-owned broadband, innovation policy, privacy codes of conduct, information technology, communications taxes, intellectual property, disaster response, rural connectivity, Internet regulation, and more.
From all of the presentations and discussions on these topics from legislators and experts, what has been repeatedly reinforced is the truth that technology continues to advance rapidly, much faster than our laws and regulations.
According to a principle known as
Appropriately, policymaking tends to be much slower. Our Constitution has given rise to a federal system with several checks-and-balances and separate powers among the three branches of our federal government. State governments have largely followed the same path. Our system of government is designed to ensure that laws and regulations are carefully considered before they are enacted. Our system of limited, deliberate government helps to protect the fundamental freedoms of Americans and to enable the private sector to thrive.
When it comes to communications and technology, there is clearly a tension between the speed with which technology changes and slowness to changes in policy. The laws on the books do not and cannot account for the dramatic and unpredictable changes typically wrought by technology. For example, our telephone service laws were written for rotary phones and do not reflect the current economics of broadband. Similarly, our consumer protection laws cannot anticipate the hopes and concerns of consumers from the ubiquity of mobile devices. What are policymakers to think?
That more good can come from doing little, that less is often more.
Unless it is abundantly clear that there is a market failure and consumers face an actual harm, government should stay out of the way of technology. In many cases, the market will respond to consumers’ behavior by adjusting to their demands, resulting in a far better outcome. If we must legislate and regulate, we must use a light touch and think carefully about the impact of our policies.
Additionally, we must also recognize that technology will change and anticipate that the policies can be rendered obsolete.
We have strived to put this lesson into practice. As Task Force chairs, we have encouraged our new subcommittees to work hard towards achieving a better understand of the interplay between technological change and policy. We have also encouraged members to develop policies that reflect the idea and tried to lead by example. For example, when we set out to write a Task Force policy for online privacy, we decided to simply revise a broad statement of principles rather than draft a model bill so that the policy would better reflect the state of technology. We feel so strongly that this is the correct approach that we have submitted the principles to the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration as it works to develop a new national code of conduct for online privacy.
The stakes for getting the right policy affecting communications and technology now and in the months ahead could not be any greater. In the midst of one of the worst economic downturns in history, the Internet economy is one of the few areas where investment in research, infrastructure, and facilities, and consumer spending on products and services, continues at a strong pace.
We cannot afford to let slipshod policymaking slow growth in this sector.
We spent 2012 striving to craft policies that would generate more from less. And now we look forward to getting more in 2013 and beyond.
Bartlett Cleland is the Director of the
Blair Thoreson is a member of the North Dakota House of Representatives. He serves as chairman of the Government Operations division of the House Appropriations committee, and also serves on the Administrative Rules, Budget Section, and Government Services committees.