24 Groups Urge Congress to Undo FCC 'Power Grab' in Digital Discrimination Rules
Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, Digital First Project Executive Director Nathan Leamer and officials from 22 other groups urged Congress Wednesday night to oppose the FCC's adopted anti-digital discrimination rules (see 2311150040) and hold the commission “accountable for…
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this power grab.” Republicans have repeatedly criticized the FCC's November order, arguing the Democratic majority went far beyond the statutory language mandating it pursue the rulemaking as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (see 2311300069). The rules “will divide Americans by race, sex, income level, and many other categories while far exceeding its statutory mandate,” the groups said in letters to members of Congress. “The FCC would trade the sound ‘disparate treatment’ standard for the unjust and arbitrary ‘disparate impact’ standard. Whereas longstanding precedent has held that the government or third-party plaintiffs would have to provide evidence of intentional discrimination on the part of a business for them to be held liable under Civil Rights law, now they must only demonstrate that different groups of people use the same service at different rates,” the letter said. The order “will empower leftist activists to shake down any telecommunications company that tries to expand broadband to unserved areas under the threat of a lawsuit,” the groups said: “In most cases it is not even the decision of the provider where they get to build. Local and state governments largely control the permitting process that dictates where telcos can operate. If they had their druthers, there is little doubt providers would seek to gain as many new customers as possible from unserved areas.”