Telecom Bill Heading for Fight on House Floor

“We will be asking the Rules Committee” to approve a net neutrality amendment for floor debate, Rep. Boucher (D-Va.) told us. “I'm comfortable the committee will permit it,” said Boucher, who was one of 4 sponsors of a net neutrality amendment the committee voted down 22-34 Wed. (CD April 27 p1). “It would be highly irregular” for the committee not to allow the amendment to come to the floor. It’s also possible the House Judiciary Committee will assert jurisdiction over the net neutrality issue, adding another layer of complexity, Hill sources said.

“Our prospects have improved. When we first began this whole issue was quite obscure,” said Boucher, who has been a strong advocate for measures to prohibit network operators from discriminating between customers. Success may be around the corner, he said, as grassroots organizations raise greater awareness of the issue.

House Minority Leader Pelosi (D-Cal.) called a meeting of committee Democrats for Tues. to discuss the bill, and she urged members to back stronger net neutrality and buildout provisions, said several Hill and industry sources. One staffer who sat in on the meeting said Pelosi was “very clear” in her plan to cosponsor Markey’s amendment next week. But the staffer also was concerned about talk of the House leadership not allowing a vote on net neutrality to take place.

If Republicans block the amendment, Democrats would have a tough time pushing to defeat the entire bill, he said. That’s a bigger challenge because many members, including his boss, support other portions of the bill, he told us. Still, the further away the bill gets from committee, the weaker opposition for net neutrality becomes, he said.

A buildout amendment is also expected to be offered on the floor, Hill sources said. “We must ensure a level playing field for all broadband service offerings,” Rep. Solis (D-Cal.) said Thurs. in a speech to a Latino high-tech group. Solis sponsored the buildout amendment that was defeated in the Commerce Committee. She urged the group to “support efforts” to prevent discrimination in broadband deployment.

Telcos saluted the bill Thurs., as did some business groups. The committee vote “should be a cause for at lease some celebration by anyone who is sick and tired of monopoly control of TV programming,” said a Verizon spokesman. But he said final approval was “far from certain.” He also chastised the high-tech companies that are waging a high- profile campaign to “save the Internet.” If these groups succeed, he said, “broadband deployment would likely slow and consumer prices would likely rise.”

AT&T welcomed the committee vote, saying it signals to consumers that Congress “hears their voices and is ready to act” to provide competition, according to a statement from AT&T Exec. Vp Tim McKone. The TIA, USTelecom, Natl. Assn. of Manufacturers and CEA praised the bill, pledging their support as it moves to the floor. But CompTel Pres. Earl Comstock said he was disappointed that the committee “capitulated to Bell company lobbying.”

The net neutrality amendment was turned back by Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.), Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.), 27 Republicans, and 5 Democrats: Reps. Gonzalez (Tex.), Green (Tex.), Rush (Ill.), Towns (N.Y.) and Wynn (Md.). The measure had failed a subcommittee vote 8-23 this month (CD April 6 p1). Net neutrality advocates deplored the vote, while touting a growing grassroots momentum.

“The fight for Internet freedom is far from over,” Free Press said. The group says its camp has momentum. More than 250,000 people wrote and called Congress in the past 5 days due to supporters’ unified outreach campaign, he said. Karr said the SavetheInternet.com Coalition ignited a “prairie fire of protest,” rallying more than 600 blogs and 75 organizations and businesses to speak out about the issue. Its membership includes Web visionaries Vint Cerf and Craig Newmark, the American Library Assn., Consumer Federation and Gun Owners of America.

SavetheInternet.com officials said they expected the loss but not the margin. The subcommittee vote should have meant that net neutrality backers were going to be “blown out of the water” and that didn’t happen, the group said. The coalition said that after only a few days they have lawmakers’ ears, while telcos have spent hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying for their position. Over the next few months, “as the public wakes up,” they will close the gap, organizers said on the group’s blog.

The Net Neutrality Coalition also said the vote showed that the amendment’s advocates were gaining ground. Former GOP congressman Vin Weber spoke on behalf of the coalition, funded by Intel, Amazon.com, eBay, Google, InterActiveCorp, Microsoft and Yahoo. The vote showed that members are “beginning to understand that a vote for anything without net neutrality is a vote against millions of Internet users,” Weber said.

Hands Off the Internet said the vote was “a green light to continued innovation for Internet technology.” The coalition -- a counterlobby to SavetheInternet.com co-chaired by former Bill Clinton spokesman Mike McCurry -- is backed by AT&T, Alcatel, the National Assn. of Mfrs., Citizens Against Government Waste, the American Conservative Union and others. Such regulations would “inevitably tie down the Internet in a web of litigation,” McCurry said: “Once you try and define what is to be regulated, unintended consequences will surely result.” If broadband providers are made liable for the way their pipes carry information, “you're going to have Congress and FCC regulators writing rules that cover the basics of Internet traffic,” he said.