Two Blue Dogs Support Effort to Nullify Net Neutrality
A pair of moderate House Democrats supported the joint resolution of disapproval to overturn the FCC net neutrality order. Reps. Dan Boren, D-Okla., and Collin Peterson, D-Minn., joined Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and subcommittee Vice Chairman Lee Terry, R-Neb., on a letter that was circulated among House members Monday supporting the legislation. House Commerce began a markup of the resolution Monday afternoon, but the body put off the vote until Tuesday morning.
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"A vote against H.J. Res. 37 is a vote for reclassification” of broadband under Title II of the Communications Act, the letter said. While about 80 House Democrats opposed Title II reclassification in letters last year, Boren and Peterson are so far the only Democratic lawmakers to support this year’s GOP joint resolution against the FCC. Both Democrats belong to the moderate Blue Dog caucus; neither is on the Commerce Committee, but Peterson is ranking member of the Agriculture Committee. The Communications Subcommittee adopted the resolution in a deeply partisan 15-8 vote last week (CD March 10 p1). No Commerce Committee Democrats at Monday’s markup said they supported the joint resolution.
The resolution is part of the GOP’s effort to hit “the brakes on runaway federal government,” Upton said. Without the legislation, the committee would be “ceding authority to unelected bureaucrats that will make the decisions rather than us,” he said. But Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., said the markup is a waste of time, since neither the net neutrality nor energy bill offered “has a chance of becoming law.” Rather than create jobs, the legislation would hurt the federal government’s ability to do its job protecting consumers, she said.
Republicans want “broadband barons” to be “the big winners,” said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. But the major ISPs say they have “no problems” with the FCC order, Markey said. Walden, not present at the markup, disagreed in a written opening statement. “While some of my Democrat colleagues claim larger providers like the [FCC] order, they are actually damning the rules with faint praise,” he said. If passed, the resolution will create certainty by removing questions about how the FCC will apply the rules, as well as “the collateral damage to FCC authority that will come when the FCC loses the court appeal.” That wouldn’t be a problem with the resolution, “since it only prevents re-imposition of substantially similar rules rather than affect the FCC’s underlying authority,” he said.