Knight Looks Forward To House Vote After Senate Moves To Save Net Neutrality
A confrontation over net neutrality – the rules governing whether internet service providers can throttle or charge more for access to certain websites – is looming in the House of Representatives, and Congressman Steve Knight, R-Santa Clarita, will likely be one of the most closely watched votes because of “concerns” he raised with the FCC over the issue.
The U.S. Senate voted to save net neutrality in a narrow vote last week, just under a month ahead of the “death of net neutrality” on June 11, when the FCC, under Chairman Ajit Pai, plans to roll back regulations meant to keep ISPs from enacting paid prioritization.
After the bipartisan vote, in which a handful of Republican Senators joined Democrats in restoring 2015 rules, analysts said net neutrality still has a long way to go. If legislation passes the House, it will need a presidential signature, which is unlikely considering President Donald Trump has signaled support for anti-net neutrality deregulation.
House Democrats, led by Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pennsylvania, have begun the process to force a vote on the issue, gathering signatures on a petition to bring net neutrality protection to the floor if it is signed by half of the House before the end of January. They currently have 90 of the 218 signatures needed, all from Democrats.
In a statement to KHTS News, Knight did not say if he was planning to sign the petition, but said he was looking forward to considering any provisions brought to the House floor for a vote.
“Congress has a constitutional obligation to provide oversight on administrative actions, and I look forward to considering what provisions are brought to the House floor for a vote,” Knight said.
The Santa Clarita representative said local businesses without monetary connections to large ISPs may face additional challenges if the ruling is enacted in June.
“Small businesses benefit the most from net neutrality because they are not put at a disadvantage against larger corporations who may have stronger institutional relationships with internet service providers,” Knight said. “When the FCC voted on this issue (last year), I called Chairman Pai to express my concerns about their decision.”
Under the former net neutrality rules, internet service providers are required to treat all online content the same, according to officials.
The ISPs were not allowed to deliberately speed up or slow down traffic from specific websites or apps, or put their own content at an advantage over rivals.For example, Comcast could not choose to slow down a service like Netflix to make its own streaming video service more competitive, nor force Netflix to pay more money to be part of a so-called internet “fast lane.”
The FCC ruling in December ended these Obama-era regulations, after a party-line vote within the Commission. The agency also eliminated a rule barring providers from prioritizing their own content, according to officials.
The night before net neutrality was brought before the FCC’s ruling body, Knight, a proponent of small businesses, called Pai to express his concerns over the changes and the impact they would have on constituents in his district.
And a week after the vote was formalized in December, Knight co-sponsored a bill, titled the “Open Internet Preservation Act” designed to take control of the decision from the FCC in an effort to preserve the “open” internet. That bill never made it to the House for a vote, stalling in the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.
