Why Do Democrats Want to Let Trump Violate Net Neutrality?

[Commentary] Democrats insist the sky will fall without binding network neutrality rules, which will shortly cease to be in effect after the Republican Federal Communications Commission voted to disclaim the underlying legal power claimed by the Democratic FCC in 2015. But instead of pushing substantive legislation to codify net neutrality (something no Democrat has done since 2011 but Republicans have done twice), Democrats are rallying around the Congressional Review Act — the same tool they denounced in 2017 when Republicans used it to block the FCC’s broadband privacy rules. Their CRA resolution of disapproval would roll back the 2017 Republican FCC order, reinstate the 2015 net-neutrality rules, and (probably) prevent the FCC from ever again disclaiming the sweeping “Title II” powers over broadband cited in the 2015 order. Locking in Title II common carrier regulation would also increase the “War Powers of the President” crafted back in 1934. Trump, or any future president, could use those Title II-specific powers to require fast lanes for favored content or services in secret — enforced by the military, if necessary.

In short, passing the CRA could embolden President Trump to claim broad, secretive powers to favor Internet content of his choosing. What could be more ironic than a resolution intended to protect net neutrality allowing Donald Trump to, at a whim, order the very opposite of neutrality?

[Berin Szoka is president of TechFreedom is a post-partisan libertarian think tank.]