Of course he's on AT&T's side.

Of course he's on AT&T's side.

Reclassifying broadband would hurt the Internet economy, Latta said in a statement. “At a time when the Internet economy is thriving and driving robust productivity and economic growth, it is reckless to suggest, let alone adopt, policies that threaten its success,” he said. “Reclassification would heap 80 years of regulatory baggage on broadband providers, restricting their flexibility to innovate and placing them at the mercy of a government agency.” The legislation would give all Internet businesses the certainty they need to continue investing in broadband networks and services, Latta added.

Trade groups USTelecom and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association applauded Latta’s legislation.

The lackeys of big telecom in Congress have now weighed in on the net neutrality debate , introducing legislation to prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from reclassifying broadband as a utility. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has promised to introduce such a bill, and Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH) has dropped it in the House.That's interesting, considering all of the web giants have weighed in on the side of preserving net neutrality, as have the venture capitalists who helped those web giants become giants. They seem to think the certainty they need is in net neutrality. The best way for the FCC to preserve it is with reclassification. Who is on Latta's side?What a shock. To be clear, this move isn't a real effort to legislate. While there's a chance it could pass in the Republican House, it's unlikely to even make it to the floor in the Senate. This is the telecoms and cable industry pushing their weight around and putting pressure on the FCC through Congress, using Latta (who they have a healthy investment in—$11,500 from the cable group and $10K from AT&T in the last two years).

This does tell us one encouraging thing: the telecoms think the threat of reclassification is real. It is real because of the huge public outcry in the past month to save net neutrality through reclassification. We've pushed hard enough that the FCC is seriously considering it, and AT&T and Verizon and Comcast are scared. Let's keep it that way.

Sign and send the petition to the FCC: The internet is a public utility.