TMCnet News
House Committee Rejects Net Neutrality AmendmentTMCnet Associate Editor This just in: The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee has reportedly rejected a Democrat-backed Net neutrality (News - Alert) amendment which had support from Internet and software companies including Microsoft (News - Alert), Amazon.com and Google (News - Alert).
Members of the committee reportedly rejected the amendment by a 22 to 34 vote. This means that the House Committee’s “Communications, Promotion, and Enhancement Act” - sweeping telecommunications reform which, if adopted, will replace the Telecommunications Act of 1996 – will not include any specific language upholding net neutrality principles (however, it could potentially still have additional amendments tacked onto it as it moves through the legislative process). Although the battle for net neutrality is far from over, the committee vote is another win for the major U.S. telecommunications carriers – AT&T (News - Alert), BellSouth, Verizon (News - Alert) and the like – which have taken a firm stand against any congressional action regarding net neutrality. The bill now moves to the House floor for a full vote, which may come within the next few weeks. Providing the House approves the bill, it will need to be reconciled with another bill focusing on net neutrality in the Senate which was introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden in March. Editor’s note: TMCnet will be following up on this story. ------- Patrick Barnard is Associate Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page. |