House Panel Passes Revised Internet Governance Bill

The bill incorporates “minor language changes” to the legislation that passed the Communications Subcommittee last week, said Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., in his opening remarks. Specifically the legislation drops a provision in an earlier draft that would have made it U.S. policy to “promote a global Internet free from government control” (http://1.usa.gov/10FeUsK). “This is an important step in showing our nation’s resolve and it will send an important signal to the international community,” said Upton.

Committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said the changes to the bill represented “a significant step forward” because it “makes clear that this policy statement will not complicate the legitimate activities of the federal government online or the authorities of federal agencies.” Waxman and other Democrats had previously protested that the dropped provision could undermine the government’s ability to prevent online intellectual property theft, prosecute online child pornography, or counter cyberattacks. The dropped provision also concerned Democrats because they said it could be used by some opponents of the FCC’s open Internet order to undermine the net neutrality rules in court.

Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., continued to disagree with minority members that the bill would have “required or prohibited any U.S. federal entities from taking any particular action on network neutrality or any other matter,” but agreed to revise the bill “in the interest of bipartisanship,” he said in his remarks prior to the vote. “Make no mistake, I still oppose the FCC’s network neutrality rules regulating the Internet domestically but I was willing to make a change to our bill to send a unifying message abroad,” he said.

Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said in her opening remarks that despite “some concerns” with Section 1 of the revised bill, it was a “compromise that I can work with.” Eshoo didn’t specify further what in that section, which consists of findings that carry no legal weight, concerned her. “In the beginning I stressed the importance of bipartisanship on this legislation which is being closely watched by countries around the world,” she said. “Any split, any daylight between Republicans and Democrats would send the wrong signal to the international community and undermine the efforts of our diplomats as they go forward,” she said. The international community will again take up the debate over Internet regulations this year when the ITU hosts the World Telecommunications/ICT Policy Forum, the World Summit on the Information Society Forum, and the Internet Governance Forum.

In separate statements Wednesday, technology companies supported the panel’s vote. Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro said in a news release that the bipartisan passage of the bill “sends a strong message against government attempts to censor and control the Internet.” Computer and Communications Industry Association CEO Ed Black in a statement commended the committee’s revised legislation, which he said “should minimize any misuse of this policy statement here at home.” Competitive Carriers Association President Steven Berry said: “Unanimous support for this legislation in its current form demonstrates a united front amid threats to the successful international multi-stakeholder governance model of the Internet at the U.N.’s ITU.” TechAmerica said it appreciated the committee’s work on the issue.