House GOP Takes First Shot Against FCC Net Neutrality Order
Republicans introduced legislation to strike down FCC net neutrality rules Wednesday, the first day of the new Congress. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn, introduced the Internet Freedom Act providing that only Congress can make rules for the Internet. Meanwhile, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said his top priority is reversing the commission’s rules, under the Congressional Review Act.
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The Blackburn bill has more than 60 co-sponsors, including most of the Republicans on the Commerce Committee. The bill is similar to one she introduced last Congress, HR-3924. Blackburn sees the bill as an “intermediate” step in reversing net neutrality rules, and she supports “more immediate steps to block enforcement of the regulations, including invoking the Congressional Review Act,” Blackburn’s office said.
Reversing FCC net neutrality rules will be the “first priority” for the House Communications Subcommittee, Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., told us Wednesday. Republicans plan to start an attack on the rules soon after they appear in the Congressional Record and Federal Register, Walden said shortly after he was sworn in Wednesday afternoon by new Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. The Congressional Review Act doesn’t allow Congress to introduce a resolution of disapproval before then, Walden said. Publication in the Register will trigger a 60-day shot clock for Congress to attempt to reverse the rules. “We're going to do hearings and things, too,” Walden said, but starting the review process is urgent because “the clock runs on that.”
"The FCC’s Christmas week Internet grab points out how important it is that we pass” the Internet Freedom Act, Blackburn said. “The only sector of our economy showing growth is online. In these times, for an unelected bureaucracy with dubious jurisdiction and misplaced motives to unilaterally regulate that growth is intolerable. … Only Congress can address those challenges without compounding them."
Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., did not cosponsor Blackburn’s bill because his policy as chairman is not to cosponsor bills that come under his committee’s jurisdiction, a Blackburn spokesman said. He said Upton cosponsored Blackburn’s bill last Congress. Walden and all the other incumbent committee Republicans are cosponsors.
Meanwhile, USA Today dueled with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas over net neutrality in opinion pieces this week. Hutchison plans to introduce a resolution of disapproval in the Senate. “The message the FCC has sent with this action is unmistakable: Innovate at your own risk because the FCC can impose sanctions,” Hutchison said in an op-ed piece.
"The FCC’s critics should cool their jets,” USA Today said. “This is hardly a case of government overreach or excess regulation. … If anything, the FCC plan might be too timid.” ISPs’ “argument that increased traffic should give them the right to favor certain content is absurd,” the paper said. “It is a bit like an electric utility saying that, to cope with surging demand for power, it should be allowed to require customers to use only appliances that it licenses.” Taking up ISPs’ cause “might be a good way” for lawmakers “to raise money,” but it’s “a bad way to foster innovation and economic growth.”