Communications and Technology Subcommittee, led by Walden, will overturn an FCC resolution. House ups battle on net neutrality

House Republicans fire the next salvo in their war against the FCC's net neutrality rules this week when the chamber's top telecom panel begins considering a resolution to overturn the agency's work.

The House Communications and Technology Subcommittee, led by Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), will vote Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. on a resolution of disapproval — a legislative tool that gives Congress a final say over federal agencies' rule makings.


That could set up the resolution to come before the full Energy and Commerce Committee as early as next week, and possibly followed by a chamber vote, according to sources on and off Capitol Hill.

The markup timeline coincides with the schedule sketched out by Speaker John Boehner this weekend, when he suggested during a speech to religious broadcasters that a net neutrality vote could come before the full House before the end of March. The speaker's spokesman, however, told POLITICO on Monday that he did not have “anything to add” on timing.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor would not elaborate Monday on the party's plans to overturn the FCC's net neutrality order. But he did tell POLITICO at his weekly briefing that nixing the Open Internet order is a party priority.

Cantor described net neutrality as "something this majority opposes, and something this majority will try to stop." He characterized the FCC's work on those rules — which require Internet providers to treat all Web traffic equally — as an example of federal regulation that has "caused a lot of uncertainty" for business.

Both Walden's office and a spokesman for full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) were not immediately available for comment Monday.

This week's potential markup is merely the latest front in the Republican war against the FCC's net neutrality rules, enacted at the end of 2010.

House GOP-ers began two weeks ago by grilling all five FCC commissioners at a hearing that extended well beyond three hours. That afternoon, both the House and Senate introduced a resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act to strike down the net neutrality regulations.

In a separate line of attack, the House successfully added an amendment that would defund enforcement of the Open Internet order onto the previous GOP spending plan. That CR, however, is now in political limbo as Republicans push a new, short-term stopgap plan.

The resolution of disapproval is an important political marker, as it signals the extent to which Republican members are willing to fight the FCC's rules.

"Unlike the last vote on a budget bill where the Senate can block it, using this procedure in the House will smoke out dozens of senators who will actually have to cast a vote on this issue for the first time," one industry source told POLITICO on Monday.

But it may not be politically effective: While Senate Republicans have the votes to force their companion effort onto the calendar, they may not have the 51-vote support to clear it.

Even if they do clear that bar, net neutrality supporters expect the president to veto the measure.