Senate Republicans voted on Thursday to advance an appropriations proposal that would hobble President Obama’s Net Neutrality regulations.
The GOP-controlled Senate Appropriations Committee marked up a financial services spending bill with a policy rider that would stop the Federal Communications Commission from using the rules to dictate what internet service providers can charge customers.
It would also only allocate $320 million to the FCC–$20 million less than what the commission received last year from Congress.
Although the FCC has said it has no intention of using its powers to tinker with rates, activists who support Net Neutrality say that the legislation could have collateral damage. Free Press said it would hinder “the FCC’s ability to protect consumers from fraudulent billing and investigate zero rating”–a practice through which a company pays to have its content exempt from cell phone companies’ data plans. The group Public Knowledge said that the measure could prevent the federal regulator addressing disputes that “leave consumers without access to part of the internet,” and that it could also stop other types of telecoms industry oversight.
President Obama announced late last year that he would be asking the FCC to implement strong Net Neutrality rules. They were finalized and passed by the commission in February.
House Republicans are also currently considering a spending bill that would put more restrictions on the FCC than those sought by their colleagues in the Senate. The legislation, which was approved last month by a full committee vote, would suspend the Net Neutrality rules passed in February until legal challenges to them are fully litigated.
