Yesterday was, it turns out, a good day: so far, 18 senators previously in favor of PIPA now oppose it, seven of whom were former co-sponsors of the act. Here’s the full list of converts.
We already told you about the fact that Marco Rubio and a handful of other senators had changed their minds, but the list has gotten much longer.
https://gizmodo.com/pipa-co-sponsor-abandons-his-awful-bill-updated-four-5877185
It means that neither side is close to having a majority on the act. According to a whip count by OpenCongress, there are currently 35 supporters (including 34 co-sponsors), 18 opponents, and 12 more Senators leaning toward opposition. Interestingly, about 35 Senators have not committed to a position. Good fence-sitting, guys.
We’ll keep this list up-to-date, but at the time of writing, the full list of new opponents reads (a “*” indicates that the senator was originally a 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)
David Vitter (R-LA)*
Tom Coburn (R-OK)
Pat Toomey (R-PA)
Mike Johanns (R-NE)
Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)*
[Ars Technica and OpenCongress]