Bipartisan Net Neutrality Legislation Coming Together, No Resolution on Title X, Nelson Says
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., confirmed that he and Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., have been working on net neutrality legislation together, as recent signs indicated (see 1412310033). Net neutrality legislative debates for the past year have been hotly partisan. Thune has indicated he wants to advance legislation before the FCC issues rules, but another top Senate Republican said waiting makes more sense.
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“We have been, for several weeks,” working on the legislation, Nelson told reporters at the Capitol Tuesday, the first day of the GOP-controlled 114th Congress. “I don’t have any more information about it. We talked about it, we talked extensively about it. … Stay tuned.”
Nelson told us in November and December that he has an idea to address net neutrality and the Communications Act section known as “Title X,” not a real title in the act so much as, from what other lobbyists have told us, a placeholder to avoid reclassifying broadband as a Title II telecom service and codifying net neutrality protections. Hill Republicans and ISP industry stakeholders have attacked Title II as full of outdated regulatory burdens and requiring a forbearance process that would cause problems and lead to years of litigation. Several Hill Democrats and the White House have backed a Title II net neutrality approach. The FCC is expected to unveil net neutrality rules that many suspect will involve Title II ahead of the agency’s Feb. 26 meeting.
“We’ve talked about that,” Nelson said when asked specifically about whether Title X was a part of his talks with Thune, “but we don’t have any resolution.”
Thune “continues to have bicameral and bipartisan discussions with his colleagues about protecting Internet freedom and avoiding the overreach of Title II regulations from the monopoly era,” a committee spokesman for Thune told us Tuesday.
“I don’t think we’ll make any decision on [legislation] until we see what the FCC does,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told us at the Capitol.
A Thune spokeswoman said last week that Thune preferred a different timing, before any FCC rules are issued. A telecom industry lobbyist had told us around that time that Thune and Nelson may differ on timing and when to advance legislation, a contention that a Nelson spokesman had pushed back on.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., objected to the idea that there would be any legislation immediately forthcoming before any FCC net neutrality rules. “I think there’ll be more oversight in the first six months of the year than there will be legislation,” said Wicker, incoming chairman of the Communications Subcommittee. “You know, I think Chairman Thune and I are looking at a lot of things, but I don’t want to give the impression that there’s a proposal that has taken shape. So we’re very much in the early stages.”
Thune previously told us he expects to keep a strong role for that subcommittee in the 114th Congress as he pursues his goal of overhauling the Communications Act, in tandem with House Republicans (see 1412120057).
“Senator Thune and I are going to be shoulder-to-shoulder on this issue,” Wicker affirmed of net neutrality and possible legislation. “We are discussing approaches even as we speak.” But he continued to warn that any legislation is preliminary. “We’re not anywhere close to having anything ready that we can discuss,” Wicker said. "I stand ready to work with Senator Thune on this issue. We’re just getting started.”
Wicker also didn't say his conversations have extended beyond those with Thune. “I have not had any conversations with Senator Nelson about this issue yet,” Wicker said. “This is the first day of the session. We’ve all been home for Christmas and New Year’s.”