Sen. John Thune Hammers FCC Ahead of Net Neutrality Vote

“On Thursday morning the Federal Communications Commission on a partisan line vote will vote out something that's called an Order in Support of Net Neutrality. The thing that concerns me about that is that this would be the first time that the FCC, in 332 pages -- of course, this wasn't a transparent process, where the Internet is going to be subject to the heavy hand of regulation as opposed to the light touch that's been utilized for so long up until this point. 

I hope that February 26 doesn't go down in history as the time when the Internet moved from something that was driven by free market innovation to something that's driven by bureaucratic decision making. But that's essentially what we are looking at. It is going to be a very partisan, non-transparent way in which the FCC has carried out their business and there is a much better alternative. I have been working with my colleagues on the House side on a piece of legislation that's only six pages long, that prevents many of the things that the FCC says they want to prevent; pay prioritization, blocking frauding -- very explicitly prevents all sorts of things but doesn't essentially hand the FCC carte blanche authority to do whatever they want when it comes to regulations of the Internet. Even if this survives in the courts, it can be changed by a future FCC commission. So this is a very bad precedent and one that doesn't have to happen. We have told the president and the White House. 

We've told the FCC. We've told Democrats here on Capitol Hill that we want to work with them on a solution to this that addresses the concerns that people have, problems that perhaps could be out there but that doesn't cede to the FCC unlimited authority for them to do whatever they want and to put at great risk and in jeopardy something that has been an incredible success story for this country and the world and that's Internet.”