Senate Debates Network Neutrality

A Republican-led challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's controversial open Internet rules is little more than an extension of a tea party effort to "take government down," Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) said.

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) sponsored the resolution under the Congressional Review Act that would prevent the regulations from being implemented. She says her resolution has gathered 42 cosponsors. Sen Hutchison and other critics of the rules contend they are an abusive overreach by the FCC that imposes unnecessary restrictions on the traditionally free nature of cyberspace. By imposing such standards, the FCC risks undermining innovation, delaying new products, and putting U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage, Sen Hutchison said. Sen Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) circulated a "dear colleague" letter, urging senators to vote for Hutchison's resolution. She said while she supports an open Internet, the FCC's rules aren't the way to do it. If any such regulations are needed, Sen Snowe argued, they should be enacted by Congress.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) called the rules “a regulatory nightmare.” "I am beginning to believe the FCC stands for the Fabricating a Crisis Commission because they are trying to create undue regulations for a problem that doesn't exist," said Sen DeMint. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) punctuated several hours of Senate floor debate by forcefully dismissing arguments that overturning the FCC’s rules would jeopardize the freedom of the Internet. Sen Rubio went through a litany of innovations and achievements of the technology industry in recent years, including the expansion of broadband, tablet computers, mobile devices and the creation of jobs despite the recession, noting all took place before the FCC’s Open Internet Order.

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) repeated his previous assertion that net neutrality is “the free speech issue of our time” and called the resolution a distraction from creating jobs. Sen Franken said opponents of net neutrality are driven by misinformation and noted that no major telecom firms have publicly backed the attempt to overturn the rules.
Network neutrality advocate Free Press noted the efforts of Sens. Maria Cantwell, Al Franken, John Kerry, Jay Rockefeller, Mark Udall and Ron Wyden: “We applaud the senators who stood up for the American people and opposed this dangerous resolution, which would eliminate the basic protections the FCC put in place to prevent Internet service providers from becoming the ultimate gatekeepers to the Web…. Regulating the few powerful corporations that control Internet access is not the same thing as regulating the content and applications that flow over this network. The only reason we’re having this debate today is because the Bush-era FCC made the wrong decision regarding its own authority over Internet-access services.”