Many of the same lawmakers that voted to gut consumer broadband privacy protections this week introduced a new bill proposing to kill US net neutrality rules. Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah)'s "Restoring Internet Freedom Act," would prohibit the FCC from classifying ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act and "from imposing certain regulations on providers of such service." Lee's bill was co-sponsored by John Cornyn (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AK), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Rand Paul (R-KY), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Ben Sasse (R-NE), and James Inhofe (R-OK)

Lee didn't release a draft of the bill, but it's expected to look very similar to a 2016 bill he introduced during the 114th Congress with the same 8 cosponsors.

As you might expect, the only "freedoms" being restored by the proposal would be the freedom for Comcast, AT&T and Verizon to abuse the lack of broadband competition to jack up the cost of broadband service or hamstring would-be streaming video competitors.

Of course that's not how Lee sold the proposal in an announcement over at the Senator's website.

The Internet "is threatened by the Federal Communications Commission’s 2015 Open Internet Order, which would put federal bureaucrats in charge of engineering the Internet’s infrastructure," Lee said in his announcement. "That is why I am introducing the Restoring Internet Freedom Act, which would nullify (sic) Open Internet Order and prohibit the FCC from issuing a similar rule in the future."

Senator Ted Cruz joined in to applaud the measure, doubling down on his previous claims that net neutrality was "Obamacare for the internet" (the proposals have virtually nothing in common whatsoever, and net neutrality has the support of many Libertarians and Republicans).

"My comments were intended to raise awareness of this unprecedented government power grab, which the Obama administration and its friends at the FCC were attempting to quietly accomplish," said Cruz. "I am proud to work with my friend Mike Lee on the Restoring Internet Freedom Act, a bill that rolls back former President Obama's power grab, protects open internet principles, and recognizes the transformative effect that the internet has had on our lives."

The latest large ISP-backed attack on net neutrality comes concurrently as new FCC boss Ajit Pai has announced plans to try and also roll back the rules via FCC procedure. The problem for Pai: he has to prove to the courts that the broadband market has substantially, dramatically changed since last June's court decision upholding the FCC's Title II and net neutrality efforts.

As such, Pai may be threatening to kill net neutrality to pressure Democrats into signing a "compromise" bill. One that's dressed up as a "solution" that promises to put the never-ending feud over net neutrality to bed, but is inevitably written by Comcast, AT&T and Verizon lobbyists with an eye on passing rules -- filled with loopholes -- that are likely worse than having no rules at all.

The problem with this strategy is that Democrats aren't likely to sign off on such a measure, knowing full well that there's broad, bipartisan support among consumers (at least those that actually know what it is) for net neutrality. That leaves Ajit Pai hoping to convince a court that there's a sudden, pressing need to reverse net neutrality rules that even most ISPs have admitted didn't actually hurt their ability to make a healthy profit.