Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) let it rip at the Computer & Communications Industry Association's Annual Washington Caucus on Wednesday.

"Continued growth of the 'Net right now is being hampered by the lack of clear enforceable standards on net neutrality. I don't think the country can afford that," Sen. Wyden warned a lunching band of telecom, computer, and software executives during his keynote address. "We've got to make sure that the 'Net is protected from the ever present impulse of companies that would like to take advantage of their position of the middleman to erect poles and barriers for their own benefits."

But Wyden directed his ire less at the various telcos and ISPs associated with this controversy, and more at the government agency charged with resolving the issue. "I was disappointed that the Federal Communications Commission in its recent Notice of Inquiry about the country's broadband future did not once, not once, mention the concept of net neutrality," he declared. "You see the words 'universal service,' 'open networks,' 'competition,' 'affordability,' but there is kind of an elaborate dance around the central concept of net neutrality."

The Senator was referring to the FCC's recent call for feedback about its National Broadband Plan, which the Commission must deliver to Congress by next February. Wyden acknowledged the significance of the agency's Internet Policy Statement—four principles that assert the right of consumers to access the legal Internet sites and applications of their choice. But he suggested that they have fostered "more legal wrangling than they have innovation and investment."

And indeed, Comcast and others charge that they lack the statutory or procedural grounding to be used as enforceable rules—the cable giant is even suing the FCC over its enforcement action against the company for P2P throttling.

But when pressed by Ars for specifics on what Wyden wants the FCC to do now, the senators' responses were vague. Interim Chair Michael Copps, for example, has called for a fifth Internet principle, explicitly invoking a policy of nondiscrimination. We asked if that is what Wyden wants.

"Copps has some good ideas," the senator conceded, "but I'm not ready to embrace that fully."

Ok, then given concerns that the FCC needs more statutory authority for creating an enforcement mechanism, how can Congress help the agency? Here was Wyden's reply:

"Well, the regulatory structure is clearly outdated. The 1996 [Telecommunications] Act is certainly behind the times. It hasn't been updated to reflect the current market. It doesn't make any sense—one Internet service provider being regulated differently from another. I think a big part of the answer is to have a telecommunications policy that is free of discrimination that favors one technology over another. VoIP, IPTV, everybody else ought to have the same crack at the market."

So who is going to lay this issue to legal rest, Congress or the FCC? Or both? Wyden was long on rhetoric, short on specific fixes. The rhetoric was good, though.

"I think it is time to step up and challenge the Federal Communications Commission to guarantee that the newest Web application that runs from a garage or dorm room has the same access to Internet users as Microsoft or Google," he concluded. "I think it is time to challenge the Federal Communications Commission to create black-and-white rules ensuring that Internet service providers are gateways to the whole net and not gatekeepers where they get to pick the winners and losers."