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After over nine hours of debate over mostly failed amendments, and delays, legislation that would re-regulate internet access by reinstating the Federal Communications Commission's 2015 Open Internet Order's Title II-based net neutrality rules is on its way to a vote in the full House, where it is likely to pass. An amended version of the Save the Internet Act (HR 1644) was approved by the House Commerce Committee on a party-line vote.

The Senate unanimously confirmed all five of President Trump's nominees to serve on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), bringing the consumer protection agency to full strength for the first time since the start of the new administration. The FTC will now be chaired by Joseph Simons, a Republican antitrust attorney who led the commission's competition bureau during the George W.

[Commentary] Is it conceivable that Congress created the Federal Communications Commission so that it could identify a risk and then decide that it should take no action to constrain it? The Restoring Internet Freedom order suggests that the FCC doesn’t approve of blocking, but insists that the FCC will do nothing about it if it takes place. The Federal Trade Commission is a great antitrust and consumer-protection agency and its work is vitally important. But it was not designed to be an expert in the way that communications networks operate.

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) helps 23 million American households afford the internet. But on February 8, the program began winding down due to a lack of funding. New households no longer can enroll. Soon, current households will confront a choice between bill shock and disconnection. We cannot let this happen. The ACP is the most effective program we’ve had in helping low-income Americans get online and stay online. Indeed, it has been the most successful program ever in our decades-long bipartisan effort to solve the digital divide.

Members of the Communications Workers of America—who build, maintain and support our nation’s communications infrastructure—have seen firsthand the need for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) in our cities, suburbs and rural areas. We are committed to ensuring equitable access to reliable high-speed internet service and ensuring that the $65 billion investment in broadband buildout from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) fulfills the “jobs” part of this critical legislation.

There is an underreported threat looming if Congress doesn’t act soon: 21.5 million households in the U.S. could lose access to an affordable internet. The bipartisan Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) provides monthly subsidies for low-income Americans to get online. And it’s been a great success: the ACP has now connected nearly 60 million Americans to broadband, many of whom have never previously had internet access at home.