Rich Fiscus
8 Nov 2011 5:29
The US Senate may be voting to overturn the Federal Communication Commission's net neutrality rules some time this week.
Last week a number of senators drafted a resolution formally disapproving of the rules, which were prompted by a federal court decision overturning a FCC ruling against Comcast over throttling P2P traffic. The court pointed out Comcast had violated no FCC rules.
Late last year, the FCC drafted net neutrality rules, but didn't add them to the Federal Register, a requirement before they can go into effect, until September of this year. They are scheduled to take effect this month.
The full Senate is expected to vote on the resolution this week, but would not have any authority unless the president signs off on it, which is highly unlikely. If the president didn't approve of the rules, they wouldn't have been drafted in the first place.
In September, after the rules were officially published, one of the bill's sponsors, released a statement saying:
Companies and industries that use broadband communications have flourished over the last decade without government intervention, yet the FCC has chosen to ?fix' a problem that does not exist. Rather than imposing new, unnecessary regulations on one of the few thriving sectors of our economy, government should get out of the way, and allow new jobs and investment in broadband technologies.