Resolution Overturning Net Neutrality Rules Cleared for House Floor Vote
The House approved 241-178 Tuesday a rule clearing the way for a final vote on a resolution of disapproval to overturn the FCC’s net neutrality order. The debate on the rule presaged a fight that’s expected when House Joint Resolution 37 hits the House floor, probably Wednesday or Thursday.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., a Rules Committee member, urged the House to oppose the rule, citing reports by Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Raymond James that the net neutrality regulations haven’t hurt the communications industry. “The FCC did their job,” Polis said. “There is now no market overhang on companies in this sector and they are no longer concerned that the regulations are overarching.”
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., countered that the FCC overstepped its bounds in approving net neutrality rules. “If you like the Internet that you have, we are saying we want you to keep it,” said Blackburn, a Commerce Committee member. “There has been no market failure. Over 80 percent of Americans are pleased with the Internet service that they have.” By approving net neutrality rules, the FCC in effect assigns “priority and value” among pieces of content, she said. “It’s basically the Fairness Act for the Internet."
The Congressional Review Act is the proper mechanism for overturning the net neutrality rules, said Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., the Communications Subcommittee’s chairman. “It is a very specific, very narrow, very targeted, bipartisan-created process,” he said. “It allows Congress to step in when an agency has overstepped its bounds on a major rule and say, ‘No.'"
Walden said companies like AT&T and Comcast supported the rules last year only out of fear that the FCC would otherwise reclassify broadband as a Title II service. “There is an open proceeding at the moment on Title II” at the FCC, he said. “They have never closed their Title II proceeding.”
House Commerce Committee Democrats circulated a letter asking their colleagues to vote against the rule, arguing that it puts the House in a procedural “straight jacket.” The letter notes that under the Congressional Review Act, resolutions of disapproval are not open to amendment. “This means we are forced into an up-or-down vote,” the letter said. “Even an amendment to restore the transparency provisions of the FCC rule, which gives consumers basic information about the speed and cost of their Internet connections, was ruled out of order in Committee."
"Consumers rely on an open Internet,” said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. “Major carriers like AT&T and Comcast have no problem with the Open Internet Order. But Republicans want to repeal it. This makes no sense."
The Senate is not expected to follow the House’s lead in rejecting the rules. Only five House Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the rule. That’s below the number that would be needed for the two-thirds vote required to overturn a likely presidential veto.