Save the Internet Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. WALBERG. Mr. Chair, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 1644. I believe, if we use words appropriately, that should be named the ``Regain Big Government Control of the Internet Act.''

Thankfully, after 2015, we only had a short time of what was so- called net neutrality, which are words that sound good but aren't true. It was Big Government takeover of net neutrality, and this bill opens the door to disastrous effects like that on getting broadband into rural America, where I live.

I still don't have broadband. In 2015, under the so-called net neutrality, we saw that broadband build-out stop. I am still looking forward to it someday. So this bill would take us backwards, not forwards.

It is clear that the bill also could have several unintended consequences which are completely at odds with the authors' intended outcomes.

Instead of doubling down on the light-touch framework which has resulted in the widespread success of the internet, Mr. Chair, my colleagues seem more interested in imposing more and bigger government regulation.

The bill only forbears from what the FCC claims it forbore from, not what it can forbear from through the backdoor of sections 201 and 202.

Instead of letting the markets work under a framework which still robustly protects consumers, this bill would inject even more uncertainty into the market. It seems that, instead of locking in protections for consumers, the only thing it is really locking in is more partisanship.

I urge my colleagues to work with Republicans on bipartisan legislation that protects consumers and promotes broadband deployment in rural America, the place I live and the place I lack broadband now and, with the continued effort to have Big Government control, I probably will still lack.

It is time to change that, and I encourage my colleagues to oppose H.R. 1644, the ``Regain Big Government Control of the Internet Act.''

Mr. MICHAEL F. DOYLE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Chair, we keep hearing over and over again that same mantra, ``government takeover of the internet.''

What the Republicans call the heavy hand of government is what is actually protecting consumers. If they want to stop a government takeover of the internet, then they had better talk to the White House: ``Trump apparently wants to control 5G in a `state-run' socialist twist to American capitalism.'' That is where you need to take those concerns about the government takeover to.

Madam Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Matsui), vice chair of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.

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