Public Knowledge Urges Congress to Block Anti-consumer Bills Targeting Digital Rights

Public Knowledge joins six public interest groups in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) urging Congress to oppose three bills targeting consumer protections in the digital age. The bills, the Midnight Rules Review Act (HR 21), the Regulation from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act (HR 26) and the Regulatory Accountability Act (HR 5), would upend longstanding and fundamental structures of federal administrative law. Taken together, they would broadly paralyze multiple expert agencies’ ability to enforce the law, which is especially dangerous in the media and communications sector. Such changes could increase prices, undermine citizens’ health and safety, and even endanger the nation’s communications network.

Kate Forscey, government affairs associate counsel at Public Knowledge, said, "“All Americans rely on modern communications technologies in their day-to day lives and deserve ready and able watchdogs to protect us from corporate abuses like sneaky fees and unexpected data overages, as well as ensuring privacy protections and the reliability of the network, especially in emergencies. These bills would strip consumers of important safeguards that go unnoticed precisely because they have been so effective in protecting people for generations. In a world of ever-increasing consolidation of media power in the hands of two or three companies, these safeguards remain essential to the continued functioning of our democracy and society.