COPE ACT VOTE MAY BE TONIGHT

Agonist says the final debate on the COPE Act will come tonight at 10 pm.

Stoller at MyDD says it's scheduled to follow Tom Delay's farewell speech. In a separate post, he summarizes the amendment situation, which isn't good. Contrary to reports last night, the two amendments allowed on Net Neutrality are a strong one offered by Markey, which has no GOP support and will be defeated, and a largely meaningless one from Rep. Lamar Smith, which could pass. No amendments are on the agenda to preserve municipal franchise powers or prevent community redlining. Thus there is no chance that the final bill will be an improvement over what came out of the Energy and Commerce Committee -- and no legitimate excuse for "progressive" Democrats to vote for it.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE 10:20: COPE Act passes 321-101. The GOP support was overwhelming (something like 216-7) but the majority of Democrats also voted "Yes" on the final bill. I'm waiting for roll call info on the Democrats from Ohio.

The Markey net neutrality amendment was defeated handily, of course.

UPDATE 10:51: OHIO VOTES

In the end, Sherrod Brown did the right thing. He voted "No" on the COPE Act's final passage, along with Tim Ryan, Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur.

Ted Strickland and Stephanie Tubbs-Jones voted "Yes", along with all the Ohio Republicans. Strickland's vote was pretty much expected, but Tubbs-Jones is a disappointment. TechLink quoted her office yesterday to the effect that she was undecided and "wants to talk with AT&T, Verizon and others before making up her mind". I guess that was a clue.