Republicans from Both Chambers Slam Title II Push

Title II “is beyond the scope of the FCC’s authority and would defy the plain reading of the statute,” said a letter led by the senior Republicans on the Senate and House Commerce Committees, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., and Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., and every GOP member of those committees. “The Commission has already tried -- and failed, twice -- to convert these principles into legally enforceable rules. Call it ‘net neutrality’ or call it ‘the Open Internet,’ the result remains the same: two trips to court, two FCC losses, and nine years of uncertainty for the Internet.” The letter did not mention Obama's Title II appeal.

“In the new Congress, Republicans will continue our efforts to stop this misguided scheme to regulate the Internet, and we’ll work to encourage private-sector job creation, starting with many of the House-passed jobs bills that the outgoing Senate majority ignored,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, warned in a statement. GOP Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., a member of the Communications Subcommittee, said the agency “should not allow itself to be bullied into embracing this dangerous proposal that will harm our economy,” calling it a proposal to regulate the Internet.

The FCC would be “wise to reject” Obama’s request, said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., expected to lead Senate Republicans as majority leader next year. Reclassification that “will stifle innovation and concentrate more power in the hands of Washington bureaucrats is a terrible idea,” McConnell said.

Such Hill GOP partisanship is now “baked in” on open Internet issues, said Computer & Communications Industry Association Vice President-Government Relations Cathy Sloan, saying such a letter is no surprise: “For the past 10-15 years, it has been partisan.” CCIA has backed strong open Internet protections, and “we are focused on the expert agency,” Sloan said. “We are just hoping that they will do their job under existing law.”

Several Hill Democrats applauded Obama, and at least one lawmaker voiced Title II support for the first time -- Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., lauded Obama’s “forceful leadership” on net neutrality. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., didn't issue a statement in response.

Nor did Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., which caught the attention of one communications industry lobbyist whose clients oppose Title II reclassification. Nelson is expected to be ranking member on the Senate Commerce Committee in the next Congress, and the communications industry lobbyist thought it was telling that Nelson had released no statement of any sort. Nelson had still not weighed in Wednesday, and when asked, a Nelson spokesman directed us to a letter that Nelson wrote Wheeler in April. That letter mentioned Nelson’s concerns about paid prioritization deals and urged Wheeler to consider “whether Title II, with appropriate forbearance, provides a more sound approach.”

The White House timed the Monday message to the FCC’s rulemaking process, a spokesman said. “There are some regulatory decisions that are due,” explained White House press secretary Josh Earnest during a Monday news conference from China. The administration acknowledged there will be ongoing “pretty robust debate in the political sphere” and that stakeholders “of both sides” have made their views known following Obama’s message. The White House has been “in touch” with industry, Earnest said.

The White House message is “consistent with the president’s previously expressed strongly voiced views,” Earnest said. Monday was the first time Obama explicitly endorsed Title II reclassification or directly urged the agency to act in such a specific fashion. Earlier this year, Obama stressed that the FCC is an independent agency and avoided proscribing solutions in any depth. “Over the past few months, the President has worked with his policy teams to analyze all the available options and to formulate the strongest possible proposal to protect net neutrality,” said White House Senior Advisor-Technology and Economic Policy David Edelman during a reddit chat. “The President also recognizes that almost 4 million Americans, and dozens of companies large and small, have written to the FCC to express strong views on this issue.”

Edelman insisted Obama’s timing was not due to the midterm election less than a week before the administration's Title II support campaign. Some lobbyists have attributed the timing to the election. “The election was not a factor in this particular case. Period,” Edelman said. “This was simply the President following through on his call for net neutrality, which has been a longstanding priority for him.”

Hill Republicans slammed Obama’s statement. “Many proponents of forbearance suggest that this contortion will be an easy process, but the facts about forbearance do not support such a conclusion,” they said in the Wednesday letter. “The amount of time that the Commission would have to spend on forbearance activity would be staggering.” They also said Title II allows discrimination.

House Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., had offered a hybrid net neutrality proposal earlier this fall, relying on Communications Act Section 706 and Title II and forbearing from the bulk of Title II, including sections 201 and 202, but Republicans also said this would fall short. Waxman’s proposal “rightly recognizes the challenges of reclassification” but “unfortunately, we believe there is no reading of the Act that permits a strict non-discrimination policy, not even Mr. Waxman’s proposal,” they said.

The FCC declined comment on the letter, and Waxman’s office also did not comment.