Lawmakers would like to solve the long-running dispute over “net neutrality” regulations by passing a bipartisan law. But for now, politics are getting in the way.

Democrats, eager to champion a populist issue ahead of the midterm elections, have not yet been willing to work with Republicans on a bipartisan bill that would ensure the Internet remains open and fair, but not overburdened by government regulation.

Instead, Democrats are working to reverse a recent Federal Communications Commission ruling in order to restore Obama-era regulations over the Internet. And the left side of the aisle has been successful so far.

[Opinion: Democrats want to reinstate net neutrality, empowering Facebook and Google]

They commandeered the Senate floor last week using a procedural maneuver that forced a vote on reversing the FCC ruling. The measure passed the Senate over the majority GOP objections with the help of Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and two other Republicans.

Buoyed Democrats are now gathering support in the House and hope to collect 218 signatures on a discharge petition, which would force the GOP majority to call up the measure for a vote in the lower chamber.

“I think members are in for a real treat,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said last week. “They're going to hear, overwhelmingly, from their constituents, in big numbers, about the priority they place on a free, fair and open Internet.”

While a House vote is not assured, and a signature from President Trump unlikely, the effort to reverse the FCC ruling will drag out the partisan back-and-forth on Internet rules, creating uncertainty for consumers and businesses.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who is chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said he would much rather have Republicans and Democrats come up with compromise legislation.

“This vote was about politics, not protecting net neutrality," Thune said last week. “Unfortunately, it’s only going to delay Senate Democrats from coming to the table and negotiating bipartisan net neutrality legislation.”

Lawmakers are fighting over rules put in place by the FCC during the Obama administration that would give the commission the authority to govern Internet companies like they do the telecommunications industry.

Proponents say this will ensure big Internet companies treat everyone fairly and do not use blocking, throttling or other techniques that harm consumers and smaller businesses.

But net neutrality opponents say the FCC ruling was unnecessary and would stifle the industry with burdensome rules and regulations. As soon as Obama left office, the FCC, under Trump appointee Ajit Pai, reversed the ruling.

The Senate vote last week spearheaded by Democrats would undo the latest FCC action, putting the Obama-era rule back in place.

Thune proposed legislation in draft form three years ago to address net neutrality concerns, but the bill lacked bipartisan support.

The measure would ban the Internet companies from engaging in anti-consumer actions such as blocking or slowing Internet speeds, but it would also prohibit the government from regulating the Internet like a phone company.

Thune said he is in favor of government regulating the Internet, but said the original FCC regulation was too heavy-handed and would use a 1930s-era law to oversee the Internet. Last week, he pleaded with Democrats last week to drop the effort to restore that rule and instead work with the GOP on a compromise bill.

“There are fair-minded people, serious about this, who would like to sit down across the table and work on a draft of legislation that would put Internet principles in place and protections in place but use a light touch regulator approach,” Thune said.

Democrats have shown no signs of backing down in either the House or Senate, but they have acknowledged in less publicized venues that the only solution will likely be through legislation.

“There are those of us on the issue of net neutrality that are still ultimately trying to get a bipartisan solution in legislation,” Sen Bill Nelson, D-Fla., the ranking member on the Commerce panel, said during a committee hearing last week.