What can President Obama really do for network neutrality?

President Barack Obama urged the Federal Communications Commission to take a stand and treat broadband more like a utility than a web portal. But as President Obama himself admits, this isn't his call to make.

The FCC is currently drafting its network neutrality proposals, and he has no control over how its five commissioners ultimately vote. After taking both houses of Congress in the midterm elections, Republicans are poised to overrule the FCC and ban net neutrality regulation. In this climate, what can a speech from the President actually do? "It's fair to see this as a preemptive strike in the coming legislative battle," says Geoffrey Manne, executive director of the International Center for Law and Economics. "There's already significant interest on the Hill in passing legislation to rein in the FCC on net neutrality, whether as part of a Communications Act rewrite or a standalone bill. The White House statement certainly makes it harder to get Democratic votes behind such an effort, and signals very clearly (although this was probably already obvious) that the White House would veto a bill that takes Title II off the table."

For now, Congress is less important than the FCC, and Tim Karr, strategy director of Free Press, thinks Obama's statement is a limited but much-needed nudge.