The Salisbury Md. newspaper is justifiably skeptical of Maryland's lone Republican in Congress, Andy Harris. Andy, by the way, is an ALEC fellow-traveler from his days in the Maryland General Assembly.
WASHINGTON — Rep. Andy Harris is more concerned about what federal agencies could do to the 1st Congressional District than what they could do for it.
The Maryland Republican said he plans to use his new seat on the House Appropriations Committee to help prevent agencies from imposing “over-burdensome regulations” on local industries, such as Perdue. If they try to do that, Harris said, he’ll target their funding.
“I intend to be quite active in making sure that our district doesn’t get hurt by the federal government,” he said during a recent interview.
Harris’ mission puts a reverse spin on the benefits of holding a seat on one of the most powerful committees in Congress.
So while the Eastern Shore wonders if residents and small business will
ever get broadband Internet service at reasonable prices, Andy wants to make sure we keep crankin' out the chickens.
The Shore has a fiber backbone only because (1) Sen. Mikulski used the old National Defense card to get funding and (2) other gov't funding paid for the rest. Of course, we note that the state made damn sure that it got its offices connected by fiber optic lines, plus a few local gov't offices, schools, and some libraries.
As for "last mile" service, the public be damned. In theory, private enterprise will rush in. In practice, it has not and will never happen.
And that's just one issue where Andy has his head in the sand.
Note: Andy voted for the "Congressional EZ Flyers" funding, even though he drives to DC. ... Guess that's not on the ALEC agenda.
The link is here: http://www.delmarvanow.com/...