House GOP Leaders Urge Obama To Block FCC Move
May 12, 2010
| 4:08 PM
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., wrote President Obama Wednesday urging him to block the FCC from proceeding with an effort to reclassify some aspects of broadband as a telecommunications service, saying the move will hinder the nation's economic recovery.
The letter was sent in response to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's decision last week to launch a proceeding that would reclassify the transmission component of broadband service as a telecommunications service under the Title II provisions of the Communications Act. Genachowski has described the effort as a "third way" approach between those who favor applying most of Title II to broadband and broadband providers who favor the status quo. An appeals court ruling last month put the FCC's authority over broadband in doubt.
Supporters of the FCC's move say it will ensure the commission can implement its national broadband plan and pursue network neutrality rules that would bar broadband providers from discriminating against content. Broadband providers argue the FCC is taking a radical step that will hamper broadband investment and innovation. Free-market groups like Americans for Prosperity have branded the FCC effort as a "government takeover of the Internet."
"We are writing to respectfully urge immediate reconsideration of your administration's plan for federal regulation of the Internet, and to warn that implementation of such a plan will needlessly inhibit the creation of American private sector jobs, limit economic freedom and innovation, and open the door to Internet taxation," Boehner and Cantor wrote.
Like other GOP lawmakers, Boehner and Cantor argue that if, as the FCC has asserted, the appeals court ruling has hampered the commission's ability to implement its national broadband plan, Genachowski should seek additional authority from Congress. "Instead, the chairman has chosen a politically-motivated end-run around both the courts and the Congress to implement his network neutrality regulations," they wrote.
While the commission is considered an independent government body, the FCC chairman and the FCC's four other members are picked by the president. In addition, Obama has said he supports network neutrality rules.
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