Disapproving the Rule Submitted by the Federal Communications Commission with Respect to Regulating the Internet and Broadband Industry Practices

Floor Speech

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Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I rise in support of this resolution to disapprove the FCC's open Internet order.

The FCC wants to regulate the Internet. Why? There must be some sort of market failure that needs correcting or some Internet issue that needs fixing or out-of-control provider that needs regulating, right?

That is not the case at all. We are talking about one of the most successful sectors of our economy--one that has flourished with limited government regulation and continued to create jobs in the midst of a very deep recession and economic downturn.

Since the Internet was privatized in the midnineties, it has prospered. The industry's growth and impact on our economy, as well as its development of new, life-changing technologies and applications, is staggering.

Twenty years ago, the Internet as we know it did not exist. Today over 2 billion people use it.

Ten years ago, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Skype did not even exist, and hundreds of millions of people are now users.

Five years ago, mobile applications didn't exist. At the end of last year, there were over half a million apps, applications, and well over 10 billion will be downloaded this year. Hopefully, they will soon be downloading mine. We came up with one yesterday for our office.

Two years ago, the iPad didn't exist. Now, over 25 million have been sold.

All these advancements expanded broadband access and encouraged private investment.

In 2003, only 15 percent of Americans had access to broadband and now over 95 percent do. This growth will only continue.

In its annual report on the Internet, Cisco projected that the Internet will quadruple over the next 4 years, and the 1-year growth, from 2014 to 2015, will be equal to all the Internet traffic in the world last year.

Clearly, the Internet industry is growing and innovating at lightening speed. Why has the industry been able to do this? It is because the environment for innovation and job creation has been ripe, with government regulation not getting in their way.

Imagine that, the government has stayed out, has taken the ``light touch'' approach, and the industry has prospered as a result.

The broadband expansion we have seen, the innovation that has occurred with computers and tablets and explosion of smartphones and mobile devices and the increased job creation have all occurred without the FCC's open Internet order.

So why does the government want to start regulating now? Is it because the Internet endangers public health or environment? Clearly not. Yet the proponents of Internet regulation claim the freedom and growth of the Internet are in jeopardy. Quite frankly, in my opinion, that is ridiculous.

To suggest that some type of regulation is needed flies in the face of the growth of the Internet economy. This is one of the problems facing our economy and plaguing our country. We are regulating where regulation is not needed. We are regulating based on speculation and in search of a problem.

This is not how we encourage innovation. This is not how we create certainty in the marketplace, and this is definitely not how to encourage job creation.

Over the past few weeks, all we have talked about is jobs and rightfully so because, throughout America, the No. 1 issue facing Americans is jobs--or the lack thereof.

Yet here we are debating whether to overturn a regulation on one of the few growth areas of our economy, one of the few sectors that has created and is creating good, high-paying jobs.

This should be common sense. It is no wonder people watching think that in this place, Washington, DC, the Federal political process is out of touch and dysfunctional.

As the FCC drafted the open Internet order, the Commission heard from broadband providers, including small businesses, about the problems the order would create and the negative impact it would have on consumers.

One small Internet service provider stated that the imposition of network management rules will hinder its ability to obtain investment capital and deploy new services in unserved areas.

The regulations would also increase costs and hamper innovation, which would only further discourage outside investment in the company.

In other words, the Internet regulation we are talking about today would lead to lower quality of service and would raise operating costs, which would result in higher prices on consumers.

So we can clearly see the impacts of Internet regulation--less investment, less innovation, higher prices for

consumers, lower quality services, increased business costs and, ultimately, fewer jobs.

Companies will spend more money on compliance, basically complying with regulations, instead of investing in innovation and driving down prices. More money will be spent on lawyers, not on engineers.

Let me be clear. The Internet will still exist if Washington bureaucrats get their way. But the order's impact will be profound, and it is going to disrupt what has become one of America's proudest entrepreneurial and industrial achievements in our history.

I have heard proponents say this regulation will preserve the open Internet as it exists today. But it is my humble opinion this is shortsighted.

Personally, I don't want to continue using the Internet of today. I want the Internet of tomorrow. I want the devices and applications I use today to soon be obsolete and out of date because the industry has continued to churn out something newer, something better and faster.

I want technologies to continue to develop and industries to continue to emerge. We are now using fewer devices for more telecommunications services, and it is not hard to imagine a day when we will use one device for all of them.

The industries are headed in that direction. When we throw the government in the middle of it, the pace will slow, uncertainty will enter the marketplace, and future innovations may just go unrealized.

One of the beautiful aspects of the Internet industry is that we don't know what is around the corner in terms of new technologies and innovations. If a few years ago we had told someone we would Google them, they probably would have been offended. But today that actually means something.

Going forward, we have no idea what the future holds, what the new innovations or ideas or technologies will be. We know technologies we cannot even imagine today will very soon be part of our everyday lives. The question is whether we are going to encourage that and particularly whether we are going to encourage that to happen here or whether we are going to discourage that from happening.

Regulating the Internet--and this specific measure we are trying to knock down today, if it passes--will discourage that development.

The FCC and Federal Government cannot keep pace with the Internet and technology industries, and the government should not attempt to catch up through regulation or legislation. That is important. We are asking this government--this bureaucratic structure, which struggles to keep pace with issues we have been facing for the last 20 years--to somehow keep pace with the issues and technology and innovations that arrive in the Internet world.

Not only do I think it is asking too much, I think it is impossible. Therefore, the government should not be looking at ways to preserve the status quo. Our government should be involved in looking at ways to promote the future of these industries, and this Internet regulation does not promote the future.

I have frequently spoken on this floor about the new American century, about whether our country will continue to be a leader in this new century. I believe with all my heart--I do, even with all the bad news and the noise we hear every time we turn on the television--there is no reason this 21st century should not be every bit as much the American century as the last century. One of the reasons I believe that is because of the advances our entrepreneurs and innovators are making in this field of the Internet.

If there is any sector of our economy that will ensure that the next century is the American century, it is the Internet and the technology sector. That is an industry where we are the leader, and it is the one where we must continue to lead. To do that, we must encourage innovation, incentivize investment, provide certainty in the marketplace, and promote the competitive environment this dynamic industry needs.

That will require passage of this resolution of disapproval. So I urge my colleagues to vote yes on the resolution.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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