Why the FCC Needs Congress

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission imagines it doesn't need Congress, but it does.

The FCC’s current message is obvious -- it does not want Congress’ help, because the FCC wants to conjure up its own legal authority. The FCC is 0-2 in self-asserting the Internet regulatory authority it wants. How can the FCC imagine it will fare better with a Title II utility regulation of the Internet proposal that involves more legal overreach, more harm to reliance interests and a wholesale repudiation of over a decade of FCC legal precedents and findings of fact? If the FCC politically rejects Congress’ help, it alone will politically own any problems, unintended consequences, or public backlash resulting from an abrupt unilateral FCC reversal of the bipartisan policies that enabled the Internet we know today. The FCC will own the negative commercial and financial consequences of a unilateral decision to take control of the Internet via utility regulation. It will own any unintended tax or fee increases on consumers, any decline in broadband investment, deployment, jobs, growth and any legal uncertainty. Wake up FCC. You need Congress.

[Scott Cleland is the Chairman of NetCompetition]