Senator Jim DeMint Plans To Target FCC in Next Congress

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) said today that the Federal Communications Commission should be renamed the "Fabricating a Crisis Commission," following its vote to approve new rules to regulate certain aspects of the internet. Later on in a blistering attack of the FCC's actions this week, DeMint said he will push for legislation that limits the power of the FCC to act on its own in enforcing rules.

"Proceeding on its own liberal whims rather than facts, this FCC has chosen to grant itself broad authority to limit how businesses can bring the internet to consumers in faster and more innovative ways," DeMint said in a lengthy statement.

He also said that these new rules "must be reversed" and that "regulatory reform will be a top priority for Republicans in the next Congress." DeMint is clearly going to take the FCC and other government agencies to task: "..I intend to prevent the FCC or any government agency from unilaterally burdening our recovering economy with baseless regulation."

For the FCC, DeMint has some specific legislation in mind to take the teeth out of the new rules, or roll them back entirely:

"In order to provide the stability businesses need to grow, I will work with my fellow senators to see passage of my FCC Act, which would ensure that the FCC can only use its rulemaking powers where there is clear evidence of a harmful market failure, as well as the REINS Act, which would add the accountability of a Congressional vote before any government agency’s proposed major regulations may be finalized."

Source: Washington Examiner