“Both political parties have a major reason to seek a permanent legislative solution after the Federal Communications Commission last month enacted tough new regulations for online traffic,” Jim Puzzanghera reports for The Los Angeles Times.
“Leading Republicans want to limit the broad authority the FCC asserted to police broadband after classifying it as a more highly regulated utility-like service under Title 2 of the Communications Act. And to do that, the GOP lawmakers reversed long-standing opposition to the need for net neutrality regulations and have proposed codifying the meat of the FCC’s order: prohibitions on Internet service providers from blocking, slowing or selling priority delivery of content to consumers,” Puzzanghera reports. “Key Democrats said they’re willing to work on a bill that could limit the FCC’s powers because enshrining net neutrality regulations into law would avoid the fear that they could be overturned by federal judges — which happened twice before — or a future Republican-led FCC.”
“‘Democrats would like to lock net neutrality into a litigation-proof statute. And Republicans really want to eliminate Title 2 [authority]. So that’s a good starting point,’ said Paul Gallant, a telecommunications policy analyst with Guggenheim Securities in Washington,” Puzzanghera reports. “The Republican bill is sponsored by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), two veteran lawmakers with the clout to get legislation approved. It tries to appease net neutrality supporters by enshrining the FCC’s new prohibitions into law but appeals to the industry by eliminating the Title 2 classification for broadband, which would limit the agency’s ability to make new regulations.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The fluidity of the marketplace should not be stymied by rigid regulations that can be arbitrarily enforced, might be deemed unlawful, and/or that can change on a dime based on FCC composition. Hopefully a real workable compromise bill can eventually be constructed and a permanent legislative solution enacted that will not threaten the vibrant hotbed for innovation that the Internet has thus far afforded.
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