Three Drafts of Senate Commerce Committee Communications Bill

THREE DRAFTS OF SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE COMMUNICATIONS BILL
[SOURCE: Drew Clark]
A copy of Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Steven's new telecom legislation is available -- and it keeps growing. What started out as 135 pages on May 1 grew to 151 pages in the June 9 draft that was released on June 12. This third draft -- dated June 16 and expected to be officially unveiled in a 10 a.m. briefing on Capitol Hill -- tops off at 151 pages. Most significantly, this new draft makes good on the pledge Stevens made, 11 days ago, to significantly modify the Net Neutrality provisions of the legislation. Indeed, an entire new section is present -- "Internet Consumer Bill of Rights Act" -- goes so far as to "apply" the First Amendment to Bell companies that would attempt to "limit, restrict, ban, prohibit or otherwise regulate content on the Internet because of the religious views, political views, or any other views expressed in such content unless specifically authorized by law." All of the Bell and cable companies have already said that they wouldn't block or impede the ability of consumers to access such sites. Advocates of strict net neutrality note that this new consumer bill of rights says nothing about discrimination or non-discrimination. And that is certain to set up a conflict over whether Stevens' new approach does more, less or about the same as the House-passed version's limited approach to net neutrality.
http://www.drewclark.com/2006/06/three-drafts-of-stevens-bill.shtml