Hill Republicans Cry ‘Partisan’ on FCC Broadband Proposal

Democrats and Republicans in Congress divided sharply on FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s plan to cement the commission’s broadband authority. (See separate story in this issue.) Democrats stood by the FCC chairman, while Republicans accused him of partisanship. The GOP called reclassification -- even lightly applied -- a mistake. House and Senate Commerce Committee Chairmen Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., urged Genachowski on Wednesday to pursue “all viable options,” including reclassification (CD May 6 p1).

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., kept out of the fight. Declining to comment specifically on Genachowski’s proposal, he told us “it would be appropriate for Congress to receive proposals for a narrowly tailored set of principles that would assure Internet openness and network neutrality.” Boucher hopes broadband providers and companies that deliver services over the Internet “would recommend a set of consensus-based principles that we could legislate.” Boucher said he believes such consensus “could be reached fairly easily.” Congress has no role in regards to Genachowski’s plan “until we are approached,” he said.

It’s a “government takeover of the Internet, and yet another government takeover of a large portion of the private sector by the Obama administration,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. “Under this job-killing big government scheme, the Obama administration is seeking to expand the power of the federal government.”

"Chairman Genachowski might as well have said he was going to remake the Internet into an old-fashioned, monopoly-era phone service,” said House Commerce Ranking Member Joe Barton, R-Texas. “His proposal is the kind of government meddling that administrations and Congresses run by both Democrats and Republicans have said for more than a decade is wrong-headed.” Genachowski “vowed to put the Commission on more solid legal footing,” Barton said, but the proposal “does the opposite, and casts uncertainty on the future of broadband."

"Using this heavy-handed approach to regulation under Title II will jeopardize private investment and innovation in broadband and inject regulatory uncertainty throughout the entire Internet,” said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., ranking member of the Senate Communications Subcommittee. “Internet companies, broadband providers, and consumers will all suffer from such uncertainty. The government has taken over a lot of industries just this year, and the last thing that our economy needs right now is for the government to take over the Internet, too."

The plan is a “partisan maneuver” after “decades of bipartisan agreement under Democrat- and Republican-led administrations, Congresses, and Commissions,” said House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla. “Ironically, Chairman Genachowski’s laudable goal of maximizing broadband deployment and adoption will be most harmed by today’s announcement.” The issue should have been debated in Congress, he added. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., called the plan “a sharp turn in the wrong direction that could ultimately take the future of the Internet out of the hands of brilliant innovators and place it into the hands of bureaucrats” at the FCC.

"The FCC just won’t take no for an answer,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. “Just over a month after an appeals court ruled it had overstepped its bounds, the FCC is at it again abusing existing regulation governing phone networks to stifle freedom and innovation on the Internet,” he said. “The only reason they are taking this path is because there’s no way they can get far-reaching and costly ‘net-neutrality’ legislation through Congress."

Hill Democrats said Genachowski found the right middle ground. Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., hailed the proposal as “a moderate, pragmatic step” and “a real leadership moment” for the FCC chairman. After the Comcast ruling, Genachowski “was put in a difficult position and was presented a false choice between no regulation of broadband services or excessive regulation,” said Kerry. “He has chosen to a measured middle path and I support it.”

The plan looks like “a smart, Solomonic middle way to ensure continued innovation, consumer protection and certainty in the broadband marketplace,” agreed Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chairman Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., concurred. “Congress will certainly have to wade into these waters eventually, but for now Chairman Julius Genachowski and the FCC have taken the right steps to ensure net neutrality and openness prevail."

Reclassification means “keeping control in the hands of consumers -- rather than letting cable and phone companies decide where Americans can go online,” wrote Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and FCC Commissioner Michael Copps in a joint op-ed Thursday in Roll Call. “The hundreds of millions of Americans who rely on broadband expect a free and open Internet, where they always have access to the legal content, applications and services of their choosing. They need the FCC as a referee to call the fouls when the free market is being manipulated.”