House Democrats will introduce legislation Wednesday to revive the “net neutrality” rule overturned by the Trump administration in 2017.
Democrats, sidelined in the minority until this year, have been eager to restore net neutrality regulations, which they believe are needed to ensure Internet providers treat consumers fairly.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the House would vote on the Save the Internet Act in the current session. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., will introduce a companion bill in the Senate.
“The legislation will reverse the disastrous repeal by Trump’s Federal Communications Commission in late 2017 of the critical net neutrality protections,” Pelosi’s office announced Tuesday.
The FCC voted in December 2017 to overturn an Obama-era decision to regulate the Internet in the same manner as telecommunications companies.
The FCC under Obama voted to impose “utility style regulation” on Internet companies in order to protect consumers from blocking, throttling, or providing faster or slower Internet speeds to certain websites. But FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, under President Trump, helped win an FCC vote to reverse the ruling, arguing there was no need for the regulation and that an open, unregulated Internet promotes innovation.
Proponents of deregulation say there is no evidence the change by Pai’s FCC has harmed consumers. But net neutrality advocates say the FCC is using cherry-picked data to defend the move and that consumers are being price-gouged by a lack of competition while Internet service providers have slowed efforts to improve data transmission.
The text of the bill House Democrats plan to introduce will restore the 2015 FCC decision to subject Internet service providers to the same regulations and oversight as telecommunications companies. The bill will restore rules proponents say ensure all Internet users are treated the same.
The House, meanwhile, will hold a March 12 hearing on their legislative proposal entitled “Legislating to Safeguard the Free and Open Internet.”
House Republican lawmakers have already introduced a trio of bills that would ensure equal treatment of Internet users by prohibiting throttling and other access changes such as paid prioritization. But those bills would also encode into law that the Internet remain largely outside the oversight of the FCC by preventing them from being categorized as a utility.
If the measure passes the House, it won’t go far from there. Senate Republicans staunchly oppose regulating the Internet like a utility.
Senate Democrats last year attempted to overturn the FCC reversal of net neutrality regulations through the use of the Congressional Review Act. The Senate voted 52-47 to disapprove of the FCC ruling. But the measure died in the GOP-led House, which did not take it up.
But unlike a measure employing the Congressional Review Act, the House net neutrality bill would require 60 votes for passage in the Senate and could not be forced onto the floor for a vote.
