December FCC Vote on Net Neutrality Rumored; Republicans Aren’t Pleased
House Commerce Committee Republicans are circulating a “short and sweet” letter telling the FCC there is bipartisan agreement that net neutrality must be resolved by Congress, a House GOP staffer confirmed Thursday. The letter comes as rumors continue to swirl at the FCC and in the industry that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will ask commissioners to vote on net neutrality as early as the Dec. 15 meeting.
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Industry and agency officials said the order is likely to be based on the net neutrality bill authored by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and will include wireless. Industry sources said FCC action in December would give Genachowski some cover, since members of Congress are expected to be gone from Washington and the Republicans won’t have taken over the House yet.
Remarks by Genachowski on net neutrality Wednesday (CD Nov 18 p2) met with praise and sharp criticism. Genachowski confirmed at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco that net neutrality was still moving forward.
"FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will imminently flout the will of the American public, the Congress, the unions, numerous civil liberties and minority groups, former FCC officials, and even members of his own political party, and unilaterally impose Net Neutrality regulations on the Internet,” said Mike Wendy, director of Media Freedom.org. “In light of other recent statements, it represents a 180-degree shift away from his call to ‘catalyze private investment, foster job creation, compete globally, and create broad opportunity in the United States.'"
"Highly uncharacteristic silence from Free Press and its allies” after the speech “suggests they may expect FCC net neutrality rules favorable to them soon,” NetCompetition.org Chairman Scott Cleland said in a note Thursday.
Free Press President Josh Silver said he’s pleased that Genachowski “finally” expressed “disappointment” with the Verizon-Google proposal that surfaced last summer. “The American people are still waiting for the chairman to deliver on his promise to establish real Net Neutrality rules that would prevent AT&T, Comcast and Verizon from creating toll roads on the Web,” he said.
If the order is teed up for the December meeting, it’s expected to circulate Wednesday, under the FCC’s usual procedures.