Updated: 2:48 p.m.

On Tuesday, House Republicans voted to roll back online privacy protections that were set to take effect this year, freeing up internet service providers to sell customer data directly to companies that mine personal data and forbidding the Federal Communications Commission from creating rules that do the same thing in the future.

The vote sent a bill to President Donald Trump that, according to The Washington Post, is "the first salvo in what is likely to become a significant reworking of the rules governing internet access in an era of Republican dominance."

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore) was the only Oregon lawmaker who voted for the bill -- the vote went down party lines. In a statement on the House floor Tuesday, Walden said the vote "reverses overreaching, short-sighted and misguided rules adopted by unelected bureaucrats at the Federal Communications Commission."

"These rules do little to enhance privacy but clearly add a new layer of federal red tape on innovators and job creators," Walden said.

In a report published Wednesday, The Verge wrote that Walden and other Republican lawmakers received substantial donations from the telecom industry, the industry that stands to gain, financially, from selling internet users information.

Using data from the National Institute on Money in State Politics, The Verge showed that Rep. Walden received $155,100 in donations from "corporations in the telecom industry and employees of those corporations" during his most-recent election cycle.

Walden has a history in the telecom industry, specifically radio. According to the biography on his website, "Walden and his wife spent more than two decades as radio station owners in the Gorge."

For comparison, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) received $71,000 in donations during his last election from the telecom industry. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) received $44,515. Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) received $32,500. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) received $5,000. Rep. Earl Blumenauer received $4,000. And Rep. Pete DeFazio (D-Ore.) received $2,000.

"I don't know what the figures are," Andrew Malcolm, a spokesperson for Rep. Walden, said in an email Wednesday, "but corporations are prohibited from donating to federal candidates under federal law."

"The only thing someone gets for a contribution is a 'thank you,'" he added, "and the suggestion of anything beyond that is ridiculous and offensive."

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052

lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker