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Blackburn Bill Tries To Gut New FCC Neutrality Rules

Tennessee Representative Marsha Blackburn, a major recipient of Comcast, AT&T and Verizon campaign contributions, has pushed forth two bills that attack the FCC's recent decisions on municipal broadband and net neutrality. In the case of the former, the FCC voted to pre-empt protectionist state laws (often written by ISPs) that prevented towns and cities from improving or expanding their own broadband infrastructure (even if it's with private help).

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Blackburn's "States' Rights Municipal Broadband Act of 2015" aims to protect these ISP-crafted laws by gutting the FCC's authority. Letting AT&T and Comcast literally write state law that tramples local citizen rights is ok, but the FCC trying to do something about this is a violation of...local citizen rights, insists Blackburn:
quote:
"I’m pleased to be working with Senator Tillis on this important issue. As former state legislators, we strongly believe in States’ rights and will fight the FCC’s liberal agenda. Chairman Wheeler’s regulatory appetite appears to know no bounds and is seeping dangerously into the lives of Americans. It is time for Congress to assert itself and protect States once again from unelected Washington bureaucrats."
Meanwhile, Blackburn has also introduced what she's calling the "Internet Freedom Act" (pdf), which aims to overturn the FCC's new Title II based network neutrality rules. Again, while most would argue net neutrality is about protecting consumers and smaller companies from large ISPs with a competitive stranglehold over the last mile, a statement to Blackburn's website insists she's helping mega-ISPs attack the FCC on the behalf of "innovators":
quote:
Once the federal government establishes a foothold into managing how Internet service providers run their networks they will essentially be deciding which content goes first, second, third, or not at all," Blackburn said in an announcement yesterday. "My legislation will put the brakes on this FCC overreach and protect our innovators from these job-killing regulations."
Again, in the latest election cycle Blackburn received $15,000 from a Verizon PAC, $25,000 from an AT&T PAC, $20,000 from a Comcast PAC, and $20,000 from the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. That money surely has nothing to do with either effort, however.

Most recommended from 123 comments



w0g
o.O
join:2001-08-30
Springfield, OR

4 edits

11 recommendations

w0g

Member

Rep Marsha Blackburn is willing to tell any lie

for mega corporations and republicans who get their riches and money from such fraud.

that's what's at play here. to protect their money flows and give them unelected power over infrastructure through their corporations that can't be regulated.

when she says the FCC is unelected power, the Congress actually set up the FCC and they are operating under Congress' authority that they granted, meaning the FCC is fully authorized and working per Congress orders.

the problem here is that the republicans don't want FCC to work, they want to be in control and be able to sabotage the internet for corporate profit instead, without any oversight.

previously republicans were in control of the FCC, they sabotaged the internet, innovation, and kept home internet slow, and prevented competition by eliminating line sharing rules. this was sabotage by giving the corporations control over the system in place, letting them decide.

also the FCC rules only guarantee access, and no plans are in the works or laid out currently to limit access to anything, and from what I can tell, it's simply a flat out lie that the FCC could ever limit anything. the rules as is, guarantee no site can be blocked, and that the companies must upgrade their networks to ensure access to services that demand it (like Netflix). that is what the FCC's rule about banning "paid fast lanes" is about, to prevent coercion of companies like Netflix to pay for their service to work when consumers already pay for access through their respective ISPs (Verizon, Comcast, etc). the second rule, no site will be blocked, means the company which interferes with access to a site like Netflix (such as Verizon or Comcast, like they did before when they deliberately allowed network performance to degrade to Netflix rather than perform simple network upgrades), will be fined or forced to perform unblocking even through upgrades to their network to fix the problem.

scott2020
join:2008-07-20
MO

9 recommendations

scott2020

Member

Buzzwords

job-killing, child-protecting, government regulated, ObamaNet, bureaucrat, freedom, America, etc. Throw those buzzwords around and no matter who the disgusting ilk are that spew it, people will eat it up.

newview
Ex .. Ex .. Exactly
Premium Member
join:2001-10-01
Parsonsburg, MD

6 recommendations

newview

Premium Member

CableMafia Sock Puppet

All you have to do is visit OpenSecrets.org to see why she's drinking the kool-aid ... in copious amounts.

davidc502
join:2002-03-06
Mount Juliet, TN

2 recommendations

davidc502

Member

Marsha's actions are embarrasing

I'm embarrassed for what Marsha Blackburn is trying to push through.

She has been a loose canon in the past, and clearly doesn't have a grasp on the net neutraility issue either.

Her actions are completely partisan in politics, and if she had a snowballs chance in hell to pushing her legislation through, would ultimately be hurting small business and the public in general. Really the only benefactors would be the big ISPs like Comcast, AT&T, by empowering them to be even LARGER gatekeepers.

Ignorance must be bliss, and if she really saw what she was doing, would blow her mind.
SpectrumDude
join:2002-04-14
Kernersville, NC

2 recommendations

SpectrumDude

Member

No surprise

She is a republican. Known for drafting legislation that is against the best interest of the middle class. The Republican party continues their Govt of for and by Corporations. Cant believe that people actually voted for these people.