Buchanan: Congress Must Act to Protect Internet Freedom

Press Release

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-FL, today said Congress should take immediate action to overturn the Federal Communications Commission's imminent plan to regulate the Internet. The FCC is expected to approve new regulations Thursday that would classify the Internet as a public utility similar to telephone companies, subjecting it to unprecedented government control.

Buchanan urged leaders in the House and Senate from both parties to work together and hold immediate hearings with the goal of passing legislation that overturns the FCC's dangerous and reckless plan. "The Internet is working fine," Buchanan said. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

The FCC proposal, cynically dubbed "network neutrality' in classic Orwellian double-speak, was authored by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.

"As the FCC prepares to assert absolute government control of the Internet, Congress should do everything possible to stop this outrageous power grab." Buchanan said. "The last thing we need are unelected bureaucrats destroying the concept of a free and fair Internet."

The Commission is expected to approve the plan by a 3-2 vote at its Thursday meeting. Two commissioners who oppose the plan, the FCC's Ajit Pai and the FEC's Lee Goodman, wrote in a joint op-ed yesterday that a free Internet has served the American people well. "Internet freedom works. It is difficult to imagine where we would be today had the government micromanaged the Internet for the past two decades as it does Amtrak and the U.S. Postal Service. Neither of us wants to find out where the Internet will be two decades from now if the federal government tightens its regulatory grip. We don't need to shift control of the Internet to bureaucracies in Washington. Let's leave the power where it belongs -- with the American people."

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