Yikes! A Strike Against Miller

25 May, 2006. 516 words.

Much has been made of Harris Miller’s ITAA lobbying career. Since I’m a programmer, Information Technology is probably the single most important issue in any campaign for me, so I did a little browsing on their web site to get a sense of what the ITAA actually lobbies for. From all the negative press they were getting, I was bracing myself for something truly evil.

ITAA opposes the FCC “broadcast flag” designed to block digital video copies of over-the-air content. Okay, that’s good a thing… I concur.
ITAA supports patent reform “designed to improve patent quality while mitigating the effects of excessive patent litigation.” I concur again.
ITAA does not believe peer-to-peer software makers should be liable for copyright infringement by users of the software. Again, I agree. This is looking pretty hopeful.
ITAA opposes “requiring Internet service providers to retain records of their users’ on-line activities.” I concur yet. What’s wrong with the ITAA again?
ITAA opposes a cap on the number of H1B immigrant work visas issued. Oops. Hrm, okay I’m not crazy about this policy, but I’m not threatened by it either. I didn’t have any idea what an H1B visa was before today, so I’ll briefly explain if someone else reading this doesn’t know. An H1B visa just allows an employer to “temporarily” (for 6 years) hire a foreign “specialist” (ie. skilled worker) to work inside the U.S at “prevailing rates.” And the employer must advertise the job to U.S. workers for 30-days prior to hiring a foreigner, too. An H1B visa holder is not much of a threat to me, because, well, frankly I’m pretty good at my job. IMHO, if someone loses their job to a H1B programmer, it’s probably because they weren’t a very good programmer. BOCTAOE.
Ruh roh… this hurts: ITAA also supports “global sourcing,” aka. “offshoring.” Not so cool. This is where Miller is taking all kinds of heat from Webb and the ITPAA, btw. Can’t say I’m too fond of this policy, but on the plus side, I’ve heard that in-house programmers generally have to fix or re-do the work that cheap offshore programmers turn in. Maybe that’s why the ITAA says that offshoring actually results in more U.S. jobs. :) Anyway, this is definitely a strike against Miller, but is it bad enough to be a fatal strike? No candidate can be perfect, especially when there’s only 2 to choose from. But this is something I’ll be pondering a lot more before June 13.

For fairness, I went over to the ITPAA site, which has been the source of some pretty vocal opposition to Harris Miller. They’ve made 3 flash movie “attack ads” against Miller, which are right there on the front page. The ITPAA organization looks basically just like the ITAA to me, except they have a pretty strong pro-American worker agenda. They sound a bit like a worker’s union for programmers, frankly. Overall, I wasn’t terribly impressed by the look and feel of the web page, and the prominent $19.95 membership dues link on the front page was a bit of a turn-off.

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