Lawmakers Talk Net Neutrality on C-SPAN
Net neutrality recurred as a topic through three interviews with lawmakers during the latest episode of C-SPAN’s The Communicators, set for telecast over the weekend. “I just think this will be very, very hard to overturn and turn this back,…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
but we have to be vigilant, there’s no question about that,” Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., said of GOP legislation that may roll back parts of the FCC’s net neutrality order. Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., praised the FCC’s order and recalled a field hearing she held last year with two FCC commissioners on the topic. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., argued the opposite, saying “we also should be acting in the Congress” to counteract the order. “Our position there is also very strong -- that you can protect the openness of the Internet a better way by having competition protected by antitrust laws,” Goodlatte said. “That’s the historic way we’ve done it in our country.” The various avenues include a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval, which Goodlatte already backs, and the appropriations process, he said. Goodlatte also considered potentially tweaking antitrust laws if businesses required that for assurances. Matsui, a co-chair of the Congressional Spectrum Caucus, lauded the revenue from the recent AWS-3 spectrum, saying broadcasters, formerly “very, very lukewarm” about participating in the broadcast TV spectrum incentive auction, now see it more as “an opportunity.” She spoke of the importance of relationships developing between Congress and federal agencies to free up spectrum, saying the Pentagon is “the toughest nut to crack” on the spectrum front. She emphasized her commitment to the bipartisan Federal Spectrum Incentive Act she sponsors. “I believe we’ll work with some of the incentives there,” Matsui said, referring to the percentage of revenue that federal agencies could recoup from giving up spectrum to auction -- currently at 1 percent. “A lot of the federal government agencies are really looking at this too.” Franken spoke of his great pleasure now that Comcast isn't pursuing Time Warner Cable. He's "skeptical" of AT&T's proposed buy of DirecTV but didn't say whether he opposes it.