Hutchison Disappointed in FCC's Broadband Reclassification

Sen Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), the ranking member on the Senate Commerce Committee, has written a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski asking that he identify which elements of the National Broadband Plan are at risk from the Comcast-BitTorrent decision, and says she thinks Title II reclassification is not about that plan, but about buttressing expanded and codified network neutrality rules, which the FCC has proposed.

Disappointed with Chairman Genachowski's decision to try reclassification, Sen Hutchison said the move would lead to "lengthy appeals" and regulatory uncertainty that could hurt broadband investment. She urged him to reconsider the move, but in the meantime wanted him to clear up "conflicting reports" about the impact of the BitTorrent decision. She cited a comment by FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick that the decision has "no effect at all on most of the plan," then a Genachowski statement that reclassification was necessary "so that the commission can implement important, common sense broadband policies."

Sen Hutchison requested a list of all the recommendations in the national broadband plan that Genachowski believes can't be implemented based on its existing authority, a justification for that conclusion for each, and the number of investigations or enforcement actions involving alleged violations of the FCC's Internet Policy Statement.