WASHINGTON — Democrats are making a big push to pass net neutrality legislation that would restore rules of the road for the internet that were largely repealed by the Trump-era FCC.
The bill would reinstate provisions to prohibit internet service providers from the blocking or throttling of web content, or from selling “fast lanes” to content companies to get special and speedier access to consumers. But the legislation would also return the FCC to the role of “cop on the beat,” as some Democrats describe it, with authority to crack down on other types of conduct deemed discriminatory against certain types of web traffic.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer appeared at a Wednesday morning event on Capitol Hill to unveil the legislation, called the Save the Internet Act, which was quickly condemned by industry groups representing major internet providers.
But Democrats, with their new House majority, see net neutrality as an issue that enjoys substantial popular support, and a number of lawmakers described it as protecting consumers from the whims of big cable and telecom companies. A hearing on the legislation is scheduled for March 12, and Pelosi said she expects to bring it to the floor “in a matter of weeks.”
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Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) told reporters that he thinks that the “momentum” of House passage will boost its chances in the Senate, where Republicans have the majority. Democrats were able to get three Republicans — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, John Kennedy of Louisiana, and Susan Collins of Maine — to vote for a resolution last May to reverse the FCC’s repeal. That resolution went nowhere, though, as Republicans still controlled the House.
The biggest barrier, however, will be President Trump. The White House has indicated that it supports the FCC’s repeal.
Republicans, meanwhile, have proposed a series of bills, including ones that prohibit blocking, throttling, or paid prioritization. But it does not reclassify the internet as a common carrier, something that the Obama-era FCC did to establish the agency’s strong authority over internet service.
Gigi Sohn, an FCC official at the time the 2015 rules were passed, said net neutrality protections and the FCC’s authority “are supported by overwhelming numbers of Americans across the political spectrum.” Democrats touted their support for strong net neutrality protections in last year’s midterms, seeing it as an issue that would resonate with younger voters.
The FCC’s repeal is being challenged in court. Last month, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments from state government officials, public interest groups, and other associations who argued that the repeal ignored millions of comments in favor of the net neutrality protections and failed to follow administrative procedures. Five states, meanwhile, have passed their own net neutrality protections, even though the FCC also made it clear that state laws would be preempted by the federal action.
After Democrats unveiled the bill, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai argued that the repeal “has proven wrong the many hysterical predictions of doom from 2017, most notably the fantasy that market-based regulation would bring about ‘the end of the Internet as we know it.’ The Internet in America today is free and vibrant, and the main thing it needs to be saved from is heavy-handed regulation from the 1930s.”
The Internet and Television Association, which represented major cable providers of internet service, said in a statement that the legislation is “a highly controversial, partisan proposal that puts the internet under heavy-handed government control.”
What wasn’t lost on some Democrats was how long the issue has been debated in D.C. policy circles, the FCC, and among lawmakers. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) joked that it has lasted since “shortly after the earth cooled.”
It may be awhile longer before the policy fight is settled.
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat who opposed the repeal and who was at Wednesday’s event, said in a statement she’ll “keep raising a ruckus to support net neutrality and I’m glad so many others are too.”