Labor, civil rights and environmental groups want “narrowly targeted” legislation...
Labor, civil rights and environmental groups want “narrowly targeted” legislation clarifying the FCC’s broadband authority, said the Communications Workers of America, National Urban League, Sierra Club and five other groups. In a letter Friday to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay…
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Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and House counterpart Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the groups said legislation would prevent “further delays” to deploying broadband nationwide. Legislation should clarify that the Universal Service Fund can support broadband, codify the FCC’s existing four Internet principles, require transparency about ISP services, stop “unreasonable discrimination” by ISPs “against any lawful Internet content, application, or service that harms competition or consumers” and ensure minorities have “meaningful opportunities to participate” in broadband build out, they said. Other “important long-range issues” should be included in a later, “more comprehensive update of the Communications Act,” they said. Rockefeller and Waxman along with their Communications Subcommittee Chairmen Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., have promised a comprehensive update of the Communications Act. Boucher simultaneously has called for narrow, consensus-based net neutrality legislation.