Comcast Decision Sparks Partisan Divide
April 7, 2010
| 2:03 PM
A partisan divide is emerging among key lawmakers over whether legislation is needed to address Tuesday's federal appeals court ruling that the FCC had overstepped its authority when it cracked down on Comcast Corp. for certain network management practices.
The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia dealt with the FCC's 2008 enforcement action against Comcast for interrupting service to customers who used the high-bandwidth, file-sharing service BitTorrent, which Comcast said was slowing down its network.
Most observers agree the ruling will likely affect the FCC's current proceedings aimed at imposing tougher network neutrality rules to prevent broadband providers from serving as content gatekeepers on the Internet. In response, some groups that favor net neutrality rules called on the FCC to use its existing authority to reclassify broadband service as a "telecommunications service" under Title II of the communications act. Democratic FCC member Michael Copps endorsed such a proposal Tuesday in a statement. The agency's two GOP members, Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker, both voiced opposition to the idea of reclassifying broadband as a telecommunications service.
In an interview Wednesday, House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., said he believes the commission has the authority to take such an action, a view echoed by Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass.
But Boucher said he believes Congress will have to enact net neutrality legislation in response to the court ruling. "I don't think the commission on its own can assure we have an open Internet," Boucher said. In statements, Kerry also said Congress may be forced to craft a new regulatory framework, while Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said he intends to draft legislation in response to the decision.
Boucher said he believes "Title II is not the best way to handle it." But in the short term, the FCC may decide it needs to take that route "just to have the authority to do the things it needs to do," Boucher said. The decision "makes clear there will be very close scrutiny paid to the statutory foundations for all of the actions the commission takes," he added.
He favors legislation based on four "not controversial" policy principles adopted by the FCC in 2005 under then-Chairman Michael Powell. They state that consumers should be able to access any lawful content they choose, run any lawful applications and services they choose, connect devices of their choosing as long as they do not harm the network, and are entitled to competition among network, application, service and content providers. Boucher said he expects there would have to be work in developing consensus among the major stakeholders involved in the net neutrality debate on two additional principles he says should be included in the legislation: the principles of transparency and nondiscrimination, and the FCC's authority to enforce all six of these principles.
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said in a statement Tuesday he plans to work with the FCC, industry and public interest groups to ensure the agency "has appropriate legal authority to protect consumers and implement its important new broadband plan."
But congressional Republicans urged restraint and said competition is the key to ensuring future broadband and Internet innovation.
Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., former chairman of the Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee, said in a statement he hoped the "FCC and Congress will respect the court's wisdom that government red tape is not the answer and allow the Internet to flourish under a new spirit of investment and competition at a time when we are desperate for economic growth." His GOP colleague, Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton, R-Texas, warned the FCC not to move to reclassify broadband as telecommunications service.
Rep. Cliff Stearns of Florida, the ranking Republican on Boucher's subcommittee, said the ruling "demonstrates the legal and policy dangers of overreaching by the FCC." He said any changes to policies affecting regulation of the Internet should be dealt with by Congress and not the FCC, but added, "I am concerned that net neutrality regulations could hamper Internet development and deter needed investments."
Senate Commerce ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, voiced similar views, saying the FCC should not "double down on excessive and burdensome regulations, and I hope the FCC chairman will now reconsider his decision to pursue expanded commission authority over broadband services in current proceedings before the agency."
Join the Discussion
The National Journal Group has the right (but not the obligation) to monitor the comments and to remove any materials it deems inappropriate.
Comments powered by Disqus