The new net neutrality rules that the Federal Communications Commission voted for in February became official on June 12th. But Republican opposition in the House were set to pounce, and have used the House appropriations bill to attack our hard-fought net neutrality ruling. A week later, two amendments for the bill that would uphold net neutrality were shot down. It seems that the big money cronies are hoping that without appropriate funding the FCC will be unable to implement the rules that will preserve an open Internet.
The Bill that May Kill Net Neutrality
The Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill, or the House appropriations bill for short, is the bill that determines what kind of budget each department under the government will get for each year. The 2016 bill was drafted with some serious budget cuts for the FCC, money that is needed by the Commission to enforce net neutrality. The FCC asked for 388 million dollars to carry out its duties, but the bill only gives them 315 million. Without the necessary funding, the FCC will not be able to effectively implement the new rules.
So those republicans who support the telecom industry and their practices have found a devious side route to take net neutrality down. They are obviously hoping to stall the implementation of the rules to buy time for the courts to settle the case that have been filed against the FCC by US Telecom et al. They cannot be sure of a win in court, but at least they can continue their contemptible system of throttling bandwidth and blocking traffic for the duration. These pro-telecom republicans have also added some provisions to the bill that are designed to prevent the net neutrality rules from being enforced by the FCC. It is clearly stated in the bill that none of the designated funding for the agency can be put towards net neutrality goals.
The anti-net neutrality provisions were craftily woven way down into the bill. The writers obviously wanted them to remain hidden, but they underestimated the efforts of the members of the House who support the concepts that form the basis of the passed net neutrality regulations. The public is now also well aware of the attempt to kill net neutrality by choking its lifeline, and this is going to cause some serious blowback. The way that these provisions were entered into the bill also makes it difficult to pick the bill clean. But once again, we believe that the opposition does not understand the lengths that net neutrality supporters are willing to go to make sure that the Internet remains open and free.
Telecoms and their friends in government have obviously not given up the fight, but the many more who support a free and open Internet have not given up either. Congress has thrown a monkey wrench into the works, but this kind of slippery behavior is always expected when it comes to politicians who are backed by big money.
Net Neutrality Needs More Support
A few days after the House appropriations bill was released in Congress, Republican representative Jose Serrano and Democratic representative Nita Lowey drafted two amendments to the bill. They took a stand to support the call of the people, even if the House majority chose to ignore it when it comes to the thorny issue of net neutrality. The amendments entered by these two representatives would have removed the sections of the bill that attacked net neutrality, but they were voted out a few days later. So less than a week after this must-pass bill came out, it seems that Congress is dead set on making sure that net neutrality cannot be enforced in 2016. But we know that the opposition is desperate since, as Representative Serrano pointed out, the appropriations bill is not meant to be an avenue for legislation to be snuck in.
Serrano and Lowey may be two fish in a big pond, but they are baked by the vast majority of the public as well as more than 80% of conservative Republican representatives. There has already been a large protests against the language House appropriations bill that would allow telecoms to continue abusing and extorting Internet users and content service providers. Over 60 civil and digital rights organizations and public interest groups – including staunch open Internet supporters the EFF, ACLU, Center for Media Justice and Free Press – quickly jumped on the bill. They wrote the House appropriations committee chairman and ranking member Representative Lowey, pushing for the removal of anti-net neutrality language from the bill. And we are sure that the many groups who have long fought for the needed protections are ready to continue the movement.
These organizations believe that the open Internet cannot be stopped, and so far they have been right. The major telecoms already failed to stall net neutrality implementation when the courts denied their June 11 appeal. Certain members of Congress have allowed themselves to be made tools of the corporate world, and are now being pressured to protect corporate interests instead of the interests of the public that they were elected to represent.
