GOP Prepares Bill to Kill 'Save' Net Neutrality Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune is crafting legislation that will likely kill net neutrality -- under the pretense of saving it. Rolling back the net neutrality rules via the FCC process would be logistically complicated and require a new, extended public comment period. Given net neutrality's broad popularity -- made evident by the FCC record 4 million public comments during the rule making process -- the GOP isn't exactly keen on letting the public have the microphone again.

Enter Congress and Thune, whose office confirms to Morning Consult that such a bill is in the works. "Senator Thune is open to immediately working with his colleagues on legislation if there is a serious readiness on the other side of the aisle to come to the table,” Commerce Committee spokesman Frederick Hill said Friday in an email to Morning Consult. “To date, Democrats haven’t been quite ready to sit down.” Ideally, you'd prefer that Congress pass a net neutrality law so the rules aren't at risk each time the FCC is taken over by a new party. But both parties of Congress are so slathered by campaign contributions, passing a bill that offers consumers real protection from the likes of AT&T and Comcast -- without so many loopholes as to render it useless -- is an extremely tall, and potentially impossible, order. While Thune's bill would likely pay ample lip service to net neutrality by banning violations ISPs aren't interested in doing anyway (blocking or throttling entire websites outright), it almost certainly won't address most of the key areas where net neutrality fights are actually now occurring: namely interconnection, zero rating, and usage caps. As a result, the end product could be weaker protections than ever before. Net neutrality supporting Congress members savvy to this fact "haven't been quite ready to sit down" because most know the bill would be a serious step backward for the open internet. Thune proposed a similar "compromise" bill back in 2015 in a last-ditch attempt to thwart the existing rules. But Thune's bill, again, was meticulously crafted with so many caveats as to be largely theater. There's little to nothing to suggest that Thune's second effort won't suffer from the same flaws. All told, the GOP have made no secret of their desire to not only kill net neutrality, but scale back the FCC's consumer protection authority. It's expected they'll push a Communications Act rewrite that attempts to do both under the pretense of broadband expansion and job creation, then lambast any hold outs as being unwilling to "compromise" on a solution. Whether Democrats crumble in compliance will quickly illustrate if their recent professed dedication to net neutrality runs more than skin deep. But there's still a glaringly obvious solution to the problem of net neutrality, especially if Congress and the FCC want to avoid the ire of millions of net neutrality supporters and end the debate: just leave the existing rules alone. But there's still a glaringly obvious solution to the problem of net neutrality, especially if Congress and the FCC want to avoid the ire of millions of net neutrality supporters and end the debate: just leave the existing rules alone.







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Most recommended from 65 comments

b10010011

Whats a Posting tag?

join:2004-09-07

Bellingham, WA 30 recommendations b10010011 Member Government for the business and by the business. This is only the beginning...

C0deZer0

Oc'D To Rhythm And Police

Premium Member

join:2001-10-03

Tempe, AZ 121.4 9.8

22 recommendations C0deZer0 Premium Member So, let me see if I have this clear... We have an anthropomorphic Cheetoh as the president of the free world.



His cabinet is full of rejected cartoon villains ( not even super villains, mind you).



The person whose authority makes them responsible to protect us from such irresponsible activity concerning the internet at large, is himself a turdy looking git from Verizon, and has already caused more chaos for internet and communication than the president's 100+ executive orders that have royally FUBAR many industries already on the consumers... The constituents that have to put up with this.



Granny klan member is thrilled because she thinks she got the Mexicans off her lawn. Archie bunker is happy because some "psycho hose beast" isn't running the presidency instead. While blissfully ignoring the regressions in individual rights and privileges we have had in our country.



Do I have that clear so far? And, if I do...



Why the hell is the public not rioting about this steaming load yet? At this point, the Simpsons episode predicting this presidency already predicted their assassination. I think it's a foregone conclusion... So, what's it going to take?

Kett2000

Premium Member

join:2002-04-23

Lilburn, GA 8 recommendations Kett2000 Premium Member Alternative Facts "It keeps getting better" ™ shmerl

join:2013-10-21 8 recommendations shmerl Member So, let someone propose a real bill that bans caps, zero rating and etc. Why didn't anyone propose it yet? brianiscool

join:2000-08-16

Tampa, FL 5 recommendations brianiscool Member Wow! Soon you will have to spend $150 a month for internet.

karlmarx

join:2006-09-18

Moscow, ID 5 recommendations karlmarx Member It's not really republican or democrats fault Both sides of the aisle are in the pockets of the telecom/cable duopoly. Don't expect either party to look out for the consumers. We got VERY lucky with the previous head of the FCC, the telcos/cableco's thought they had him in their pocket, and he turned out to be very pro consumer. They did not/will not make the same mistake again. I quote the trump candidate "Telecommunications network providers and ISPs are rarely, if ever, monopolies." That is technically true, but when your 'choice' is 3mb dsl or 50mb cable, though it's not 'technically' a monopoly, it sure feels like it. That's why the paid shills were up in arms when they redefined high-speed as 25mb/sec. Suddenly 80% of the country WAS serviced by a 'monopoly'.

You see it every month, by both the telcos and cablco's. Like the boiling frog, the slowly add $1.00 here and $2.00 there. Suddenly you realize your $50.00 cable bill is now $125.00. Cable companies are getting squashed by online streaming services, and they WILL NOT ALLOW that to happen. Ergo, they used to charge $50.00 for 100 channels, and $25.00 for 50mb/sec. Now it's $75.00 for 50mb/sec and $25.00 for cable. Sure you pay less for your TV channels, but they impose caps and limits on the internet side to keep their cash cow going.

This will not end well for any consumer. Period. We have ourselves to blame, we keep electing people we KNOW are in the pockets of the big companies, but we are too lazy to do anything about it. We are stupid enough to elect trump, who will destroy not only the constitution, but the economy of the US in just 2 short years. I would not be suprised if both china and the EU decided they no longer wanted to trade with the US. They can do fine without us, but we cannot survive without them. Hint : Making america 'great again' has 2 problems. #1: America was already great compared to the rest of the world, and protectionism is the exact OPPOSITE of what 'makes america great'. We are screwed. Eth_Rem

Premium Member

join:2009-06-17

Littleton, CO 5 recommendations Eth_Rem Premium Member I see I see a lot of VPN sign ups in the future.



Seriously though, people will find a way. We always have. Erik709

join:2017-01-01 3 recommendations Erik709 Member Ugh What a joke.