House Telecom Bill Stalls Over 'Net Neutrality' Vote

HOUSE TELECOM BILL STALLS OVER 'NET NEUTRALITY'
[SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
Legislation to grant Bell telephone companies quick entry into the pay-television market will not be on the House floor this week, aides to Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) confirmed. The House Judiciary Committee has sought a referral of the bill, particularly for its "network neutrality" language. The delay is likely to work to Judiciary's advantage. Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and ranking member John Conyers (D-MI) have drafted their own version of net neutrality legislation, which they are expected to release this week. "Judiciary has requested jurisdiction on it, and the parliamentarians are getting ready to wade in," said Kevin Madden, an aide to Rep Boehner. The House leadership wants to "let these kind of events play out first." Congressional and industry sources said Republican leaders are worried that voting against a network neutrality amendment -- one that would keep dominant Bell and cable companies from charging competitors more to transmit high-speed Internet content -- could be a political liability. Some technology companies and public-interest groups want FCC-enforceable regulations barring Bell and cable companies from undermining neutrality. "We are trying to explain that a vote for a telecom bill that does not address the issue of network neutrality in any way is a very difficult vote politically, closer to the election, for Republicans," said former Rep. Vin Weber, R-Minn., who was hired by technology companies to lobby his former colleagues on the subject. "There is huge grassroots constituency for the net neutrality position: all sorts of Internet users," said Weber. "It is a big and powerful constituency, but it is not necessarily an organized constituency. I would not like to cast a vote that can be portrayed by bloggers and others as a vote against the Internet."
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-OWOW1146513301117.html

* TV Lobby Supports Barton-Rush Cable Plan/ Deals between AT&T/Verizon and Stations Reflect Net Neutrality Concerns
[SOURCE: Digital Democracy, AUTHOR: Jeff Chester]
[Commentary] Don't expect much coverage by local TV station news departments on the plan to kill-off community franchising of cable. The powerful National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) supports AT&T and Verizon’s quest to dump local cable oversight. That’s because the telco’s are doling out money and probably special broadband favors to both stations and the networks. The phone companies desperately need programming; the broadcast industry wants cash. Last month, Verizon announced a deal with CBS that likely gave the network lots of money for its programming and a way it “can use the bandwidth and flexibility of [Verizon’s FIOS] fiber network to reach their customers in innovative ways.”
http://www.democraticmedia.org/jcblog/?p=35

* Ohio Digital Divide Working Group on COPE
http://angelastuber.blogspot.com/2006/05/cope-act-talking-points-and-bro...