WASHINGTON-Proponents of network neutrality face an uphill battle to convince the U.S. Senate to include net neutrality in its version of telecommunications reform after a major defeat Thursday in the House of Representatives. The Bush administration also signaled its opposition to the issue.
“The administration believes the Federal Communications Commission currently has sufficient authority to address potential abuses in the marketplace. Creating a new legislative framework for regulation in this area is premature,” according to a statement from the White House released by Verizon Communications Inc. following final passage of the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006-the Cope Act, as the House telecom-reform bill is officially known.
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a significantly watered down version of network neutrality that one proponent, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), called a “Trojan horse.”
The House defeated an amendment by Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), ranking member of the House telecommunications subcommittee, that would have codified network neutrality by prohibiting blocking, degrading and/or restricting access to content-things the wireless industry routinely does today on its broadband networks. Instead, legislators favored an amendment from Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas). Smith’s amendment explicitly said that nothing in the bill precluded lawsuits based on antitrust laws.
The Smith amendment was an attempt to allow members to say they voted for network neutrality even though the amendment did nothing on the issue, charged Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.).
“It is meant to tell members who are in favor of network neutrality that they can vote for this, but it does absolutely nothing for network neutrality,” said Lofgren.
The Smith amendment passed by a vote of 353-68-nearly 200 more lawmakers voted for the Smith amendment than for the Markey amendment.
Proponents of network neutrality had worked feverishly in recent weeks to create a groundswell of support-but they came up short.
“The House has rushed to pass the Cope Act at the urging of the telephone and cable companies, who feared the growing public support for an enforceable net-neutrality law. With the defeat of the Markey amendment, the House bill will have no meaningful protections for consumers or service providers against the discriminatory practices that the telephone and cable companies will employ to favor their own content and services,” said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a public-interest think tank that specializes in technology-related issues.
The vote was good news for Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), co-chair of the telecommunications subcommittee of the House Rural Caucus. Stupak’s amendment allows the FCC to impose universal service and intercarrier-compensation obligations on Voice over Internet Protocol providers. Stupak had tried and failed to add the amendment at both the subcommittee and full committee level. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, is ideologically opposed to universal service. “I think the universal-service fund needs at a minimum to be significantly reformed. I do not think, as we deploy new technologies, we should saddle these new technologies with a new tax,” said Barton, even as he backed down from seriously opposing the amendment.
By including a universal-service provision, the House has a bargaining chip with the Senate, which is expected to include strong universal-service language in its bill.
Missing from the bill is language giving liability protection to both VoIP carriers and public-safety answering points when they handle 911 calls. The National Emergency Number Association, which has pushed hard for VoIP liability parity, withdrew its support for the bill.
