Senate Democrats Push For Vote to Restore Net Neutrality This Week

Ajit Pai, the FCC Chairman who is owned by the telecom and cable industry, is pushing closer to grant their wishes.  Named by Trump in January 2017, Pai has been working every day since then to repeal rules that classify internet service as a utility. Under the Pai plan, high-speed internet service will no longer be treated like a public utility with strict rules, as it is now. Instead, he said, the industry "should largely be left to police itself.”   

Democrats in the Senate are fighting back and have a shot to win.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) plans.... on Wednesday to force a vote on a bill that would nullify the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) December decision to kill the rules, which mandated that internet service providers treat all traffic equally.

The bill has a real chance of passing the Senate.... Restoring the net neutrality rules has the support of all 49 minority party members, as well as Republican Sen. Susan Collins.  

Democrats have been pushing for the 51st vote that will secure them a win in the Senate, and a number of consumer groups have been turning up the heat on the GOP senators who seem most likely to flip.

There is very little in these partisan times that has more universal support than net neutrality.  

A University of Maryland poll in December — taken days before the FCC’s repeal vote — found that 83 percent of voters favor keeping the rules in place. That figure includes 75 percent of Republicans and 89 percent of Democrats.

With the rules enjoying support from a vast majority of voters on both sides of the aisle, the thinking is that forcing a vote will put pressure on Republicans.

How would this work procedurally?

The Senate bill would use legislative authority under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to reverse the FCC’s vote. The CRA, which was seldom used before Trump came into office, allows Congress — with a simple majority in each chamber and the president’s signature — to overturn agency moves.

If passed, the CRA also prevents the agency from ever implementing similar actions in the future.

The clear winners of a repeal of net neutrality are the giant companies (Comcast, Verizon, etc) that provide internet access to phones and computers. The repeal will allow them to exert more control (ie charge more) over the online experiences of hundreds of millions of Americans.

Nothing would prevent the Comcasts of the world from creating new high-speed serving packages for your small business to force payment of hundreds more per month to keep your web site up.  Comcast, AT&T, and others get to charge piles of money for services they are already providing.  That money comes from our businesses and from every company we buy things from.  Ultimately it comes from each of us.

Source: http://thehill.com/policy/technology/386313-dems-push-to-restore-net-neutrality-rules