Republican Senate Resolution to Kill FCC Net Neutrality Rules Fails

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's (R-Texas) effort in the Senate to kill the FCC's net neutrality rules has failed. The Senate voted, 46-52, against moving forward with a resolution that would have overturned federal regulations enacted in 2010 that govern anti-competitive behavior online.

"It's time to push back" against federal agencies that are overreaching their authority and enacting burdensome regulations, she argued before the Senate voted on a motion to proceed.

In the end, Hutchison was unable to gather enough support for the measure, which the White House would have vetoed if it had passed. The GOP-controlled House approved a resolution in April, but Democrats in the Senate promised to stop Hutchison's effort. As ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, Hutchison did an end-run around the committee by gathering 40 signatures to force the full Senate to consider the resolution. The measure failed along party-lines.

Democrats argued that the FCC's new rules were necessary to prevent large corporations from throttling Internet access.

"The FCC's Open Internet rules mean that small entrepreneurs will not have to seek permission from broadband providers to reach new markets and consumers with innovative products and services," Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said during debate on the Senate floor on Wednesday. "Far from preventing investment, the FCC's Open Internet rules will foster small businesses and support their demonstrated ability to create jobs."

Source: The Atlantic