Senators Seek Help in Fighting Latest House Network Neutrality Rule Roadblock

Language trying to block the Federal Communications Commission from implementing its network neutrality rules has surfaced again, now included in language in the House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee version of a 2012 funding bill that passed out of committee June 23. But Democratic senators are calling on their colleagues to block the effort.

House Republicans tried to attach a similar amendment to a temporary spending bill earlier in the year and succeeded in getting passage in the House but not the Democratically-controlled Senate. Sen Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), ranking member on the Commerce Committee, had previously tried to attach a fund-blocking amendment to an omnibus appropriations bill last fall.

On June 23, the Financial Services subcommittee approved the following bill language: "SEC. 621. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to implement the Report and Order of the Federal Communications Commission relating to the matter of preserving the open Internet and broadband industry practices adopted by the Commission on December 21, 2010."

In a letter to the chair and ranking members of the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday, 10 senators including Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) called on them to rebuff any similar effort in the Senate.