House Appropriations Committee Launches Cynical Sneak Attack on the FCC’s Open Internet (“Net Neutrality”) Rules

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 10, 2015

Contact: Evan Greer, 978-852-6457
Email: press@fightforthefuture.org

The appropriations process is being used by a captured Congress to undermine Open Internet Rules that nearly 4 million Americans fought to pass.

On Wednesday, June 10, 2015, the House introduced no less than three amendments to a must-pass appropriations bill that, through different mechanisms, would block the FCC from enforcing its Open Internet (“Net Neutrality”) Rules. By attaching these amendments to a must-pass bill, Congress has made them difficult for President Obama (who supports Open Internet rules) to veto.

Each amendment, if passed, would severely undermine the FCC’s ability to stop cable companies from blocking, throttling, or discriminating against specific websites for arbitrary, non-technical reasons.

“Congress doesn’t get it. Millions of Americans fought for net neutrality, and they won,” said Fight for the Future campaign director Evan Greer, “It’s time for the cable companies to stop looking for favors from Washington and actually focus on providing the thing their customers want: faster, more reliable service.”

“These FCC rules are the Internet’s last line of defense from the one threat it can’t simply out-innovate: being throttled by companies like Comcast who have millions of American households locked in,” said Fight for the Future co-director Holmes Wilson, “Here you see Congress jumping through ridiculous procedural hoops, just to kill the most vibrant part of our economy: Internet-enabled small business.”

“It’s almost sad how unsurprising this kind of underhanded sneak attack is coming from cable companies and their friends in Congress,“ said Fight for the Future Campaign Manager Charlie Furman. "People overwhelmingly support Net Neutrality, so of course cable companies bury their attacks a hundred pages deep in an appropriations bill the public doesn’t read closely.”

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