Senators hear calls on the FCC to step back from net neutrality rules

The Federal Communications Commission should abandon its efforts to pass network neutrality rules because new regulations would hurt investment and the deployment of broadband, a parade of Republican senators and advocates said.

Advocates of strong net neutrality rules have pointed to few problems that justify intrusive new regulations, several Republican senators argued during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Net neutrality would amount to the FCC taking “control” of the Internet, said Sen Orrin Hatch (R-UT). “Without government regulation the Internet is growing,” he said. “So what’s the problem? What is broken? What is it that needs to be fixed?” Instead of questioning witnesses, Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) gave a six-minute speech about what he sees as the evils of a “nanny state” of growing government regulation. Every time the net neutrality debate returns to Washington (DC) “it stirs up an interesting debate between government regulation versus, to some, the terrifying freedom of the Internet,” Sen Cruz said. “I think the American people don’t find that freedom all that terrifying.”

Several Democratic senators and three hearing witnesses defended net neutrality rules, saying rules are needed to keep the Internet free from selective traffic slowdowns by broadband providers seeking to pump up profits through paid traffic prioritization deals.