In a welcome development, fully half the U.S. Senate has rallied to protect equal access to the internet, working to override a Federal Communications Commission decision that will scrap protections for consumers.
This is a battle worth fighting, given how much of daily life now revolves around a vast digital landscape used for everything from ordering a pizza to hunting for jobs. [...]
It’s good to see that both Minnesota’s senior senator, Amy Klobuchar, and newly minted U.S. Sen. Tina Smith are among those supporting a Congressional Review Act to stop the FCC repeal and restore Obama-era protections the FCC tossed out. [...]
There is ample reason for Republicans to be troubled. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai may contend that the new rule will spawn a “better, cheaper, faster internet,” but many business leaders disagree. On Wednesday, leaders from social media giants Facebook, Twitter and YouTube testified before the Senate Commerce Committee on the need for an open internet. They are just the latest in a wave of corporate opposition to the FCC rule that includes Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, Kickstarter, the National Small Business Association and others. They know — as average Americans soon will learn — that the decision will allow for fast and slow lanes online, with speed tied to a willingness to pay.
Meanwhile, attorneys general in 21 states — including Minnesota — have opened a second front, challenging the FCC decision in court and calling it an “arbitrary, capricious abuse of discretion” that violates federal law.
A recent survey by the University of Maryland shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans — 83 percent — including three out of four Republicans, opposes the plan to repeal the protections. It is disturbing to see some, like House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden of Oregon, so blithely accept a “pay to play” construct that will tilt the digital field further toward the moneyed and powerful. Walden recently defended paid prioritization, as it’s sometimes called, as a fact of American life. “Where do you want to sit on an airplane?” he asked. “Where do you want to sit on Amtrak?”
But travel is not speech. [...]
[italics added, not in original]
"Tilt the digital field further toward the moneyed and powerful," is language arguably ill chosen, given the earlier catalog of the content provider end of big money being allied with consumer and small business interests; with the Pai led FCC fawning upon the pipeline people, those charging consumers for a connection and then wanting a bidding war on the provider end along with the ability to arbitrarily and capriciously throttle individual users below the technical limits of the user modem and connection bandwidth - so that if wanting glitch-free streaming Netflix without interruption of the stream, you can be made to pay premium, etc. Per the added italics within the Strib excerpting, not only fast and slow lanes made Pai posslble, but one smooth road and one bumpy one may prove to be part of Pai preferences.
So both of the worthwhile ends of things want Net Neutrality and the middlemen want the right to hose the worthwhile ends, and Trump's Pai argues and voted to let 'em have the opportunity. It would not surprise if it was Mike Pence who picked Pai for the job. In effect - He's kissing the hind end of the cable companies, while collecting a tax-financed paycheck. It must be Pence at play. Trump would never do that after all the little-guy campaign promises he made. He was not lying within every word of those promises, was he?
A scenario: Next, the Senate can vote. The specific review act entitles a floor vote so procedural McConnell roadblocks should not factor into things. Then there is the House. How many Paul Ryan secure seat types are there in the Ryan GOP majority, and will foot-dragging be a House factor aimed by Ryan to kill Congressional review? Then, if the Senate does not split 50/50 with Pence casting the kill vote, and if Ryan cannot muster his minions to kill, will Trump be bastard enough to refuse signing a Congressional overturn vote into law?
Likely. Sad.
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For background, see, e.g., Ars Technical reporting.