"I’ve gotten a lot of calls from people today urging me to oppose SOPA (or PIPA, as the Senate companion bill is called). I do oppose the bill as it’s currently written. Additionally, my understanding is that enough of my colleagues agree with my position that the bill isn’t going to come to the House floor for a vote. This, in my opinion, is an important lesson in how the legislative process is supposed to work. Before a piece of legislation is voted on and passed into law, there ought to be serious consideration and due diligence. Experts in the field should be consulted and, more importantly, American citizens should have a chance to read and react to the legislation. Too often in recent years, bills were passed through Congress without hearings, without real debate, and without input from the American people. Happily, that didn’t happen with SOPA. Although SOPA was offered with good intentions, as it is drafted, it has serious flaws. Given the time for careful consideration, those flaws came to light- before the bill was passed."