Sen Markey and Rep Eshoo Lead Members of Congress in Amicus Brief Challenging the FCC’s Net Neutrality Repeal

Sen Ed Markey (D-MA), Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA), 27 senators, and 76 representatives filed an Amicus Brief with the DC Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the Federal Communication Commission’s December 2017 decision to eliminate network neutrality rules. The FCC’s decision repealed the 2015 Open Internet rules, which categorized broadband internet access as a telecommunications service and prohibited Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from engaging in discriminatory practices, such as blocking or throttling online content and establishing internet fast and slow lanes.   

“In sum, the FCC’s reclassification decision in its 2017 Order is based entirely in the misuse of language,” write the members of Congress in their brief. “It is divorced from the practical realities that supported the FCC’s 2015 classification decision. And it leads immediately to absurd results. It is an abuse of discretion which this Court should overturn.”  

“Both the plain language and Congressional intent behind the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that Congresswoman Eshoo and I helped author make clear that today, broadband access to the internet is a telecommunications service,” said Sen Markey. “But Chairman Pai and his Republican FCC colleagues ignored the statute, our intent, and consumer perception when it reclassified broadband back to an information service and eviscerated net neutrality rules. They are on the wrong side of history. Whether in the halls of Congress or the halls of the courts, the fight for net neutrality is the fight for our online future, and we will prevail.”