Waxman's Bottom Line: The 'FCC Must Act'

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House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) confounded the critics who slammed him and his staff for putting together a draft bill that supposedly favored the big telecom companies when he called on the Federal Communications Commission to get with the network neutrality program: "The bottom line is that we must protect the open Internet. If Congress can't act, the FCC must." And Congress isn't acting any time soon.

At the end, the politics were fascinating. Under normal circumstances, when AT&T and Verizon want House Republicans to do something, they usually do it. AT&T and Verizon wanted Waxman's bill, sensing a win. Amazingly, however, House Republicans balked. Call this the Tea Party influence on telecom. Some Tea Party groups filed a comment with the FCC asking the Commission not to "regulate the Internet." Remarkably, their letter, from a batch of grass-roots organizations, used the same talking points as inside-Washington players like the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and Americans for Tax Reform, when referring, for example to the "depression-era" Communications Act. So what we had here were some "grassroots" groups using industry talking points to kill a bill that the telecom industry now wanted - or at least said it could support. Ah, irony. Make no mistake. This was an ugly process. Friends turned on friends, coalitions were fractured, hard decisions were made.

And yet, at the end of the day, one clear defining message came out of it, and it bears repeating. The chairman of the House Commerce Committee said that the FCC "must act." Waxman's directive couldn't be any clearer. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has his marching orders. It's time for him to hit the road and get it done.


Waxman's Bottom Line: The 'FCC Must Act'