Democrats’ Net Neutrality Bill Another Exercise in Congressional Futility
Don’t look for any help on net neutrality here.Image: Khue Bui/Associated Press Alternate headline: powerless bill doomed to fail. Two Democratic members of Congress — Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Rep. Doris Matsui of California — will propose legislation that will push the Federal Communications Commission to do whatever it can to ensure net neutrality, according to The Washington Post. The proposal comes amid the growing realization that the laws Congress has enacted may be too narrow to provide for net neutrality, forcing the FCC to plod forward in hopes that it can write regulation that keeps the Internet a level playing field while staying within the legal bounds it has already twice exceeded. The bill gives no new power to the FCC, instead adding only political support. It will likely die in the Republican-led House of Representatives. Net neutrality and the FCC are both already highly politicized. The two Republican FCC commissioners voted against opening comment on the commission’s recently proposed net neutrality rules, and GOP politicians have warned they will try to thwart new regulation seen as overly intrusive. Keep in mind, the FCC enforces rules written by Congress. Congress theoretically could pass a bill giving new, legitimate power to the FCC to enforce net neutrality. Instead, Democrats are writing a bill that would essentially cheerlead the commission, and it will likely never see a vote. As President Barack Obama recently noted, the current slate of legislators is on track to be the least productive Congress in modern history with 23 public laws adopted in its second session. The idea that politicians, whose job it is to propose new laws to be enforced by regulators like the FCC, would pen such a toothless bill, coupled with the reality that it almost certainly won’t pass, highlights just how broken the system is. Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/06/17/democrats-net-neutrality-congress/