Reps. Joe Barton, Cliff Stearns, Fred Upton and John Shimkus are telling the FCC to stand down on net neutrality. GOP to FCC: Back off net neutrality

Each of the potential Republicans who could come to lead the committee that chiefly oversees the Federal Communications Commission is sending the agency a clear message: Stand down on net neutrality.

Current ranking member Joe Barton (R-Texas) rallied the troops on the Energy and Commerce Committee on Friday, seeking to stake party opposition to any new FCC-led effort to impose rules that would require Internet providers treat all Web traffic equally.


A total 19 top committee members signed on to a letter that decried any new net neutrality effort a “mistake” – and urged Chairman Julius Genachowski to focus his attention instead on other areas, like reform of the nation’s airwaves, which both parties support.

Barton’s effort followed slightly harsher rebukes from other members who seek his committee gavel – Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) – who each warned the agency not to move forward on net neutrality.

The GOP leaders’ initial, visceral reaction follows news Thursday that the FCC could address net neutrality at its upcoming December meeting, according to several sources with knowledge of the situation.

The shape and scope of any net neutrality proposal still remain unknown, and it’s not even fully clear the FCC intends to take action in December.

But agency's spokeswoman on Thursday dismissed the early ruminations as “pure speculation at best.” Later, an FCC official Friday evening stressed that it was not seeking to regulate the Web.

“Net Neutrality is about preventing anyone from regulating the Internet," an official told POLITICO. "There are some cable and phone companies out there that want to decide which apps you should get on your phone, which Internet sites you should look at, and what online videos you can download. That’s regulating the Internet — and that’s what the FCC is trying to stop.”

Still, the agency’s reassurances have hardly quieted top Republicans seeking the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee next Congress. Should the FCC proceed on net neutrality, many of those members’ threats could become realities for Chairman Julius Genachowski.

Sending that message Friday was Upton, considered the front runner for the committee gavel should Barton not receive a term-limit waiver. He explicitly promised “the FCC will be prominently featured and Chairman Genachowski will soon be a familiar face on Capitol Hill” if the agency moved ahead on net neutrality.

“I hope that the only turkey cooking next week will be in our kitchens on Thanksgiving and not at the FCC,” the congressman said.

Stearns, meanwhile, chided the agency for potentially moving on a controversial issue during recess. “Ramming through Internet regulations would ignore the will of a bipartisan majority of Congress and the American public,” said the congressman, who currently leads Republicans on the House’s top tech subcommittee.

Shimkus similarly skewered the agency on Friday: “The FCC should not be trying to institute a government takeover of the one industry that is currently expanding and creating jobs when we currently have close to ten percent of Americans unemployed,” he said. “The FCC’s attempt to take over the Internet will hinder both of these things.”

Barton and his coalition of Republicans – which included Upton, Shimkus and Stearns –stressed in their Friday letter that a return to the net neutrality debate “will only distract us from work and further jeopardize investment, innovation and jobs.” The members instead encouraged Genachowski to turn his attention to issues like reform of the Universal Service Fund and new efforts to free up much-needed wireless spectrum. Both issues have heavy support in Congress as well as among the FCC’s commissioners.

Even those who aren’t on the committee are beginning to voice their displeasure with the FCC. “I support ensuring that the Internet remains free from discrimination, but not by imposing heavy-handed regulations on the industry and not through back door regulations negotiated in secret,” said Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va), who co-chairs the bipartisan Congressional Net Caucus.

“Furthermore, Congress has not given the FCC clear authority to regulate in this area. There are much less intrusive ways to handle this,” he said.

Together, the acerbic words of the FCC’s incoming Republican overseers present a challenge for not only net neutrality supporters in Congress, but for Genachowski and others at the FCC. These angry members could respond by summoning Genachowski for countless hearings, constraining the agency’s authority or limiting its federal dollars.

Still, it isn’t immediately clear how the agency intends to proceed on net neutrality: It has not yet released its December meeting agenda. According to agency rules, the chairman’s office must release its agenda by Wednesday for its Dec. 15 meeting.

Most are instead interpreting Genachowski’s remarks at a Web 2.0 conference in California as evidence that some action regarding net neutrality is on the horizon.

"That'll happen," Genachowski said of potential new rules.

All of the speculation about what steps the agency may next take arrives about a month after lawmakers failed to reach a net neutrality compromise of their own. A proposal spearheaded by outgoing committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) shortly before the election break faltered in part because those same top GOP players voiced their concerns.

Some Democrats, however, have defended the FCC this week -- including Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a key committee member. “It is my hope that the Commission will act this year to ensure that the Internet retains the features of openness and non-discrimination that have made it the most successful communications and commercial medium in history," he said Friday, adding any new net neutrality rules should apply to wired and wireless Web.