The House this week will attempt to revive an Obama-era policy that would give the government the authority to regulate the internet like telephone companies.
The measure is almost certain to be blocked by Republicans in the Senate. But House passage is likely aimed at reaching the Democratic base which strongly supports net neutrality.
Democrats have made restoring the net neutrality rule a priority since President Trump’s appointees on the Federal Communications Commission overturned it in late 2017.
Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., introduced the Save the Internet Act, a measure Democrats believe is needed to prevent internet companies from unequal and unfair service to consumers and new companies.
The measure would reinstate the Feb. 26, 2015, vote by the FCC that reclassified the internet as a public utility.
Under the change, internet service providers were required to serve all internet traffic equally.
The House is poised this week to pass the bill reviving the rule in a vote that will likely be mostly along party lines.
“The legislation will reverse the disastrous repeal by Trump’s Federal Communications Commission in late 2017 of the critical net neutrality protections,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said when the bill was introduced earlier this year.
Republicans back the idea of implementing fairness rules but believe regulating the internet like a public utility will stifle innovation that has been so critical to the industry.
[Opinion: A year after net neutrality’s demise, the Internet is faster]
The conservative Heritage Action said such regulation “would lay the groundwork for government taxing and over-regulating the internet.”
House Republicans have introduced alternatives in a trio of bills that would ensure equal treatment of internet users by prohibiting throttling and other access changes such as paid prioritization.
But Democrats oppose the proposals because they would also encode into law that the internet remain largely outside the oversight of the FCC by preventing them from being categorized as a utility.
Once the House passes the measure, it heads to the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will likely block it from coming to the floor.
Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., has authored legislation aimed at ensuring equitable treatment by internet service providers. Like the House GOP legislation, his measure would prevent the FCC from regulating the internet like a public utility.
It’s possible the two parties could at some point agree to a compromise deal.
Polls show the public favors net neutrality provisions but not necessarily the change allowing government regulation of the internet.
Tech industry writers have reported no new changes more than a year after net neutrality regulations were repealed.
But that could change, Wired magazine wrote recently, if internet service providers no longer feel threatened by the revival of net neutrality rules.
“Any egregious violations of the principles of net neutrality by broadband providers would provide ammunition to advocates who want the old rules restored,” the magazine reported in December. “So expect the status quo to continue for a bit longer.”
