Center for Democracy & Technology President Nuala O'Connor...

Republican FCC commissioner now at Wiley Rein, will testify on net neutrality Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. O'Connor has defended the need for net neutrality rules, while McDowell has questioned them. “I would like to discuss several proposals that draw upon, or are hybrids of, Title II and Section 706, and several implementation issues applicable to any approach,” O'Connor plans to say, according to written testimony. The real question is whether the “commercially reasonable” standard supports the concept of Internet openness, O'Connor’s testimony says. In it she proposes a potential modification of that standard to allow for rules crafted under Communications Act Section 706. She also discusses a “hybrid” authority that takes “some of the strengths of Title II and Section 706” and considers what it would mean to apply Title II reclassification to edge providers. But the FCC needs “clear rules now,” she argues. Other witnesses are Union Square Ventures Managing Partner Brad Burnham, actress Ruth Livier, and Jeff Eisenach, a visiting scholar with the American Enterprise Institute Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy. The hearing will be at 10:30 a.m. in 216 Hart. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., also pressed for broader discussion of net neutrality outside of Washington and stronger rules in an op-ed for The Hill Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1m8GMGM). “To make sure they get this right, the FCC should leave Washington and go on the road to hear firsthand from consumers, small-business owners, entrepreneurs, educators and other citizens who will be directly impacted by the policies put in place for the Internet,” Leahy and Matsui said, emphasizing their work to hold events outside D.C. They had partnered to introduce legislation that would ban paid prioritization deals.