The House Committee on the Judiciary on Thursday approved the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act (HR 5417), the so-called “Net Neutrality Act,” by a vote of 20-13.
If enacted, the bill would prevent telecommunication companies and Internet service providers from developing tiered networks for accessing the Web. Some members of the House committee have argued that many U.S. citizens are located in areas where there are very few choices in broadband providers. The Net neutrality law is designed to prevent local telecommunications companies and cable providers from offering transmission priority to Web publishers who agree to pay more, and consigning those who do not pay for special treatment to a “slow lane” on the information superhighway.
“The lack of competition in the broadband marketplace presents a clear incentive for providers to leverage dominant market power over the broadband bottleneck to pre-select, favor, or prioritize Internet content over their networks,” said Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, who was joined by a handful of Republicans and most of the committee's Democrats in supporting the bill.
While Internet users are lauding the news, many on the telecommunications side of the issue worry about the committee’s decision. According to an Associated Press report published at Yahoo News, AT&T said it is disappointed. Tim McKone, AT&T’s executive vice president for federal relations, said that the House committee had approved a bill to help solve "a problem that doesn't exist."
Both AT&T and Cisco previously have complained that the Net neutrality law would stifle the development of new technologies—which is exactly what Google, Microsoft, and others have said would happen without such a law.
Some committee members said they had questions about the bill’s use of a 1914 antitrust law to enforce Net neutrality, but many ended up supporting the bill after the House Energy and Commerce Committee in April approved a far more comprehensive telecommunications reform bill that does not have strong anti-blocking rules.
The Energy and Commerce Committee bill gives that committee the sole jurisdiction for resolving content-blocking disputes, and several members of the House Judiciary Committee worried such a bill would take away their oversight of communication antitrust issues.
In a Wall Street Journal article leading up to the house vote, Craig Newmark, founder of CraigsList, said, “Americans want to play fair, work hard and get ahead. That’s what Net neutrality is about.”
He added, “We’re trying to preserve the level playing field. It’s just fairness. So, to preserve the level playing field, we need to prevent the powerful from paying people for special privileges. We’re not talking about regulation; we’re talking about preserving democracy.”
