The House Energy and Commerce Committee overwhelmingly backed a seemingly unremarkable bill Wednesday designed to prevent foreign governments from taking greater control of the Internet. But it’s what isn’t included in the legislation that is the most revealing.

Over the past year, Internet “freedom” has become an area of rare consensus in Congress. Members of both parties praised the spirit of cooperation at the markup, which came after changes to the bill designed to address Democratic concerns.

On its surface, the measure would do little to change domestic policy. It affirms the importance of an Internet free from censorship and government control and codifies the existing management structure of the Internet. In doing so, it relies heavily on a resolution Congress passed unanimously last year before the World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where U.S. negotiators tried to fend off a treaty they feared would allow repressive foreign regimes greater ability to censor Web traffic.

“It is the policy of the United States to preserve and advance the successful multi-stakeholder model that governs the Internet,” states the key clause of the bill cleared Wednesday by the committee on a voice vote.

Notably, however, lawmakers dropped from the legislation the phrase “free from government control,” which had threatened to derail the April 11 markup by the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. How various policymakers and stakeholders define government control has become a crucial window into their views on Internet policy and it demonstrates how even seemingly innocuous technology legislation can have unintended and far-reaching consequences.