BNA Electronic Commerce and Law
May 2, 2007
By Cheryl Bolen
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), the chief sponsor of net neutrality legislation (S. 215), April 26 told supporters that he is seeking a hearing on the bill and that he sees a consensus developing for it in the Senate.
Dorgan made his remarks during a conference call hosted by the SavetheInternet.com Coalition, which was marking its first anniversary. Dorgan praised the group for its diverse membership and commitment to net neutrality. In a relatively short time, net neutrality has moved from an unknown technical issue to one of the most prominent issues in Congress, he said.
Dorgan and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) reintroduced their bill in January. There is no companion legislation in the House, although Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), the sponsor of legislation in the 109th Congress, has indicated he will reintroduce a bill this year.
The Senate bill was offered as an amendment to a major telecommunications bill last year, where it lost in committee on a tie vote, Dorgan noted. Still, the issue prevented the bigger bill from moving to the Senate floor.
"I'm going to be seeking a hearing in the coming months in the Senate Commerce Committee with the goal of moving our net neutrality legislation on the floor of the Senate," Dorgan said.
"I believe that we're developing a consensus here in the Senate and I'm looking forward to being successful," he said.
Threat to Internet
Opponents of the bill argue that there is no threat to the Internet, Dorgan said. But Edward Whitacre, chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T, has said no one can expect to use its pipes for free. This is a threat to the open architecture of the Internet, Dorgan said.
"That's why this fight is very important. The future of the Internet is at stake," Dorgan said.
Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia University, said the nation is experiencing a sea change in telecommunications policy, in part because of the coalition. Net neutrality has emerged as the first "third rail" of telecommunications policy, he said.
"People last year touched net neutrality and were shocked by the electric reaction they got from the public. I think the plan was to quietly bulldoze through telecom legislation last year, to disable the FCC's oversight of net neutrality, and just sort of let things go," Wu said.
Instead, it was a shock to everyone involved, Wu said. The campaign for net neutrality has changed the politics of telecommunications, possibly forever, he said. People feel an ownership in the network and that this is something that their representatives need to care about, similar to the environment or Social Security, he said.
Part of Presidential Campaign
Michele Combs, a spokeswoman for the Christian Coalition, said her organization sees net neutrality as a "true family issue." State chairmen have their own Web sites, and churches rely on the Internet to bring sermons to people, she said.
"We're very, very concerned that if net neutrality is not passed, it will affect millions of people who attend church, it's going to affect our state chairmen," Combs said.
Initially the problem was that net neutrality is not an easily explainable issue, but now that people understand, they are gravitating toward it, Combs said. The Christian Coalition would like to see net neutrality as part of the presidential campaigns of both parties and it is something that the organization will promote, she said. "It's number two on our legislative agenda," she said.
"Our goal is to turn net neutrality into a true family issue," Combs said.
Adam Green, communications director of MoveOn.org Civic Action, called net neutrality an Internet grassroots revolution that Congress must turn into law. Millions of people are now involved, including bloggers, individuals signing petitions, celebrities, musicians, and others, he said.
What the coalition has done this year is "reinvigorate" the fight, Green said. To date, Free Press and others have held 42 in-district meetings with lawmakers, he said. MoveOn.org looks forward to the year ahead and will continue its grassroots push, he said.
Debate Has Shifted Away
In contrast, Mike McCurry and Christopher Wolf, co-chairs of the Hands Off the Internet Coalition, a group opposed to net neutrality legislation, issued a statement in response to the conference call.
"During the past year, public debate about the Internet has shifted noticeably away from regulation and toward the urgent need to improve consumers' high-speed choices. America has already fallen far behind much of Europe and Asia in broadband deployment and regulating high-speed access for a nonexistent problem does nothing at all to increase high-speed choices.
"The key is to continue the current massive effort to deploy new high-speed systems. That promotes jobs and competitive pricing while eliminating the whole rationale for expensive federal regulations that shift costs onto ordinary net users," McCurry and Wolf said.