i3 - September/October 2016 - 30

Policy
T EC H P O L I CY

Rep. Fred Upton on Tech

anked as one of the top 25 hardest working members of Congress by
Newsmax in 2016, Fred Upton estimates he spends about 11 hours a week in
transit traveling from Washington to Kalamazoo in southwest Michigan and
back again. The 63-year-old Republican U.S. Representative for Michigan's
6th congressional district has served since 1987.
for Congress and he was honest and
hard working. It was Dave Stockman. I
volunteered for him and ran a couple of
counties. We ended up getting 55 percent
of the vote. I was in charge of constituent
service. I got a call a couple of years later
and they asked me to run for his seat
against the guy who took his place. I beat
the only incumbent to lose in a primary in
the country. It was 1986.

What led you to the Energy, House
and Commerce Committee?

In 2010, he was selected by his colleagues to serve as Chairman of the House
Energy and Commerce Committee, which
has jurisdiction over issues relating to
energy, the environment, healthcare, telecommunications, commerce, manufacturing, trade, and oversight and investigations. His legacy includes passing more
than 130 pieces of legislation into law.
Upton is also the champion of the
bipartisan 21st Century Cures Initiative
which aims to accelerate the development
and approval of drugs and devices - helping
patients and families in critical need. Prior
to his election to Congress, Upton worked
for President Ronald Reagan in the Office of
Management and Budget and on the congressional staff of U.S. Representative David
Stockman (R-MI) from 1976 to 1980.
30

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016

We need spectrum
if we want the
devices to continue
innovating
at this pace going
forward.
CTA President and CEO Gary Shapiro
recently sat in Upton's Capitol Hill office
to talk with the chairman about issues
impacting the tech industry.

Why did you go into public service?
Frankly, it was never a dream that I had.
I met a young guy that was running

Ed Madigan was chosen to be Secretary of
Agriculture, so when he left the committee
there was a special election that opened
up a seat two months later. I used all of the
connections that I had built and beat my
friend Bill Paxton, who became the head of
the NRCC and then he was on next time.
I was dead last - 16 of 16. Back then with
opening statements you couldn't even quiz
the witness at a subcommittee hearing
because time had expired and they had
to go because it was lunch. I changed the
rules and was very happy when my colleagues elected me chairman. We have had
a great run.

What do you think about the
Telecomm Act 20 years later?
I learned under (former longtime Rep.)
John Dingell that it's a lot better to get
things done in a bipartisan way. The
Dingell Bill has been very important. It's a
job creator. At the end of the day, we wrote
a very strong, bipartisan bill. And as I look
back, I see how far we have come.

What did the bill get right?
We tried to get government out of the
way and that was our whole goal. We let
consumers decide where they want to go.
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

http://upton.house.gov/ http://upton.house.gov/

i3 - September/October 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - September/October 2016