The House on Friday passed legislation that would prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from regulating rates for broadband service. Though Democrats on the commission have said they would not seek to regulate the rates, Republicans are skeptical in light of the agency’s rapidly expanding regulatory creep.
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“The last thing we want to throw on there is the cold water of Washington bureaucracy, after-the-fact regulation, that will stifle competition and innovation that has benefited consumers,” said Oregon Republican Rep. Greg Walden, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
In spite of saying they agree with the broader concept, Democrats still voted against the legislation, and the White House has said it would veto the bill if it passes the Senate. They argue it would curtail some of the new authority the FCC granted itself when it voted to classify broadband providers as Title II utilities last year. California Democrat Rep. Anna Eshoo, who sits on the committee with Walden, called the legislation “an attack on consumers and an attack on the FCC’s net neutrality rules.”
Despite insistence by Democrats that they have no intention to start regulating broadband rates, Republicans are skeptical, particularly in light of their opposition to the bill. “All that legislation does is codify the commitment that FCC leadership made to Congress last year, that rate regulation was off the table,” Republican FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai told the Washington Examiner this year. “It seems to me if that is so, there is no harm in enshrining into law the principle that the FCC shouldn’t be able to micromanage the rates that broadband providers are charging.”
To some extent, the net neutrality rules passed by the FCC do engage in rate regulation by prohibiting paid prioritization. In other words, the rules prohibit providers from offering better service to customers willing to pay more. Democrats do not view that as per se rate regulation, and Republicans even removed a provision from the legislation that could have prevented the regulation in an attempt to win over more Democratic votes.
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Though the legislation is unlikely to survive a veto due to a lack of votes to override in the Senate, Congress could attach it as a rider to something like the annual omnibus spending package later in the year. That would have the potential to force the president’s signature.
On another front, the FCC’s authority to impose Title II regulations on broadband providers is being challenged in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. An adverse ruling could negate the issue, though a ruling for either side will likely result in an appeal to the Supreme Court.
