Just a day after a major Internet protest against the SOPA (Stop Online Pricay Act) and the Senate version called PIPA (Protect IP Act), and despite Senate Majority leader Harry Reid's vow to bring the bill to the floor in the Senate, support for PIPA is bleeding out and the votes to pass the bill are not there.Open Congress has a list of who is verbally, publicly, leaning toward or against support or opposition of PIPA and the numbers favor those that cannot or will not support the bill.
As of now, the constantly changing numbers show, 38 Senators either published or verbally against or leaning against supporting PIPA and 33 members of the Senate either published or verbally supportive or leaning toward support of PIPA.
ARS Technica is updating as more as the numbers fluctuate.
Here is the full list of new opponents. An * indicates a former co-sponsor.
- Roy Blunt (R-MO) *
- John Boozman (R-AR) *
- Scott Brown (R-MA)
- Ben Cardin (D-MD) *
- John Cornyn (R-TX)
- Jim DeMint (R-SC)
- Orrin Hatch (R-UT) *
- James Inhofe (R-OK)
- Mark Kirk (R-IL)
- Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
- Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
- Marco Rubio (R-FL) *
- Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
Update (7 PM): David Vitter (R-LA) is now also opposed. He was previously a co-sponsor of the legislation.
Update (9 PM): Three more opponents, all Republicans: Tom Coburn (R-OK), Pat Toomey (R-PA), and Mike Johanns (R-NE).
Update (10 PM): Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) is jumping on the bandwagon. She was a PIPA co-sponsor.
Update (Thursday): Mark Begich (D-AK) also joined the opposition on Wednesday.
The Republican controlled House of Representatives has already announced they will not be bringing the SOPA bill, as written, on to the floor of the House for a vote and from the number of Senators we see running away from their previous support of PIPA, the Senate version is pretty much dead.
For now.
No one doubts these bills, in some form or another, will be back, but for now, it appears that opponents of SOPA and PIPA have made their point and their voices heard.
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