Bobby Rush Faults FCC Network Neutrality Proposal For Not Helping Low-Income Americans

Rep Bobby Rush (D-IL) asserts that the network neutrality proposal being considered by the Federal Communications Commission does not help low-income communities as much proponents claim.

Addressing a forum sponsored by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, he said that while he supports proposals to ensure network neutrality, it has limited impact on poor and minority communities. "Even though this issue has been framed in terms of broadband access for poor and minority people to attract people like me to their audience and to add potency to their arguments, the real battle has more to do with which giant can topple or get the best of the other," he told the audience. "It annoys me when people who purport to represent people of color start talking about low-income or poor people, as if they intimately know about their problems and challenges. Unlike those people, I do know and understand." The congressman said regulators should focus more on increasing the number of minority-owned broadcasting and other media companies. "In order to achieve the desired outcomes of inclusion, affordability, ubiquitous access to broadband services and more true universal service reform for the unserved and underserved in the most enduring fashion possible, the door to ownership has to swing open far more widely than where it's perched today," Rep Rush said.