No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my colleague from California, the ranking member of our subcommittee.
Mr. Chairman, today we are considering a deceptively simple bill, H.R. 2666. The bill states that the FCC may not regulate rates for broadband Internet access service, but I urge Members on both sides of the aisle to not fall for this rhetoric and misinformation.
Just because this bill is short in length does not mean it is narrow in scope. It is designed to gut the FCC because, as experts have pointed out, the definitions in the bill for rate regulation could mean almost anything.
While the Republicans claim that they intend the bill to be narrow, we have heard over and over that their draft would swallow vast sections of the Communications Act. Most notably, this bill could undermine the FCC's ability to protect consumers.
Democrats repeatedly offered help to improve this bill. But make no mistake, there was not a negotiation. We offered suggestions, but were rebuffed time and again. In fact, we raised concerns from the beginning that the original bill failed to define rate regulation.
Then, at the eleventh hour, the Republicans provided their own take- it-or-leave-it definition with no Democratic input. This is not negotiating.
The result of this one-sided conversation is the definition of rate regulation that simply confirms our worst fears. The definition is so broad that it effectively would gut the agency.
Now, we have said repeatedly that we do not want the FCC to set rates. But we can't support a bill that undermines the FCC's core mission. We can't support a bill that prevents the agency from acting in the interest of the public.
We can't support a bill that prevents the agency from protecting consumers from discriminatory practices, and we certainly cannot support a bill that undercuts the FCC's net neutrality rules. The Republicans rebuffed all of our efforts to narrow H.R. 2666 so that consumers are not harmed.
If we are at all serious about passing a narrow bill, then accomplishing these goals would not be that hard. Our collective interests should be aligned. But that clearly is not the intent of my Republican colleagues.
Mr. Chairman, I urge Members to cast a vote against H.R. 2666.
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