Net Neutrality CRA Supporters File Petition to Force Senate Vote, Likely Next Week

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and other supporters of a Congressional Review Act resolution aimed at reversing the FCC order to rescind 2015 net neutrality rules (Senate Joint Resolution-52) said Wednesday they remain hopeful they will pick up support from additional GOP senators before a final vote seen likely next week. Fifty senators publicly support the resolution -- all 49 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. Markey filed a petition Wednesday to discharge the measure from Senate Commerce Committee jurisdiction, as expected (see 1804260030 and 1804300033), a final step in their bid to force a floor vote by a June 12 deadline.

“This vote will allow senators to show once and for all whose side they are on,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., during a news conference. “Are they for protecting average consumers and middle-class families? Or are they protecting the big, corporate special interests?” The filing “kicks off the most important week for the internet that the Senate has ever seen,” Markey said. Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, again noted Democrats' view that restoration of the 2015 rules has popular support before November's elections. Republicans who vote against the CRA measure will underestimate the public's “passion” for the issue “at their peril,” he said.

Markey resisted assertions the measure might pass 50-49 if Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., isn't able to return this month because of brain cancer treatment (see 1805080066). “We are constrained” by CRA rules that allow passage of a resolution of disapproval only during the 60 legislative days after a rule is propagated in the Federal Register, Markey said. “To actually have a vote” by the June 12 deadline, “we have to use this time frame legally.” The resolution's supporters “hope that Sen. McCain recovers,” Markey said.

“There are a number of Republican senators who have shown an openness to potentially voting yes, and I know those Republican senators will take notice of all the constituent calls and emails they will receive today and in the coming days,” Markey said. Sen. Jeff Flake, Ariz., and two other Republicans whom supporters have tipped as possible swing votes on the resolution separately told reporters Wednesday they will vote against it. “I'm voting to keep” the FCC's rescission order, Flake said: “I've always felt” the FCC made the right decision. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said he will be “supporting leaving things like they are” and that “things were functioning perfectly well” before the FCC created the 2015 rules and bringing them back would “stifle a lot of investment.” Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., also said he will vote against the CRA resolution.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., still undecided on the CRA, told us he believes Congress will “probably have to get past” the CRA push “before we see any movement” on net neutrality legislation like his Open Internet Preservation Act that could form the basis for a bipartisan compromise. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., filed the House version of the bill (HR-4682) in December. HR-4682/S-2510 would bar blocking and throttling but doesn't address paid prioritization (see 1712190062). “I'm open to suggestions on ways to improve” the bill,” Kennedy told us: “I left out” paid prioritization language “on purpose, not because I don't feel we should address it. But I want to get everyone's ideas on how to do it.” If S-2510 comes to the floor “we can let everybody offer amendments and try to thrash it out.”

House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., told us he still believes supporters of the 2015 rules will need to get the CRA push “out of their system" before they will be willing to work with Republicans on a compromise. He gets "no sense that they want to compromise” given the tenor of an April House Communications Subcommittee hearing on paid prioritization (see 1804170037). Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Director-Telecom Policy Doug Brake told us he believes it's still important to for lawmakers to “sit down and solve this problem” while recognizing the diminishing likelihood that a compromise is unlikely to materialize ahead of the elections. “Components” for a compromise bill like the one ITIF proposed earlier this week (see 1805070043) exist in other bills, not in a single package, he said.

Net Neutrality Notebook

All 14 comments filed on an FCC broadband ISP transparency rule under the Paperwork Reduction Act came from individuals, who generally supported net neutrality and urged blocking the commission's repeal of related regulations. (One comment targeted EPA actions and one was blank.) The comments were posted at the Office of Management and Budget webpage on the PRA proceeding. OMB must approve the transparency rule's ISP disclosure requirements before the FCC's December rollback of Communications Act Title II net neutrality regulation can take effect. The commission last week confirmed there were 14 comments, but most broadband trade groups and companies we contacted told us they didn't submit any (see 1804300059).