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Dorgan, Snowe Introduce Net Neutrality Bill

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/9/2007

Senate Commerce Committee members Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Me.) wasted no time putting the network neutrality issue back on the legislative calendar.

On Tuesday, the first day of the new Congress, the pair re-introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, which would prevent broadband providers from "discriminating against Internet content, applications or services, and require them to offer stand-alone broadband service not bundled with video or voice."

Snowe, in introducing the legislation, said there had been a turning point in the network neutrality fight, and pointed to the FCC's "imposition of net neutrality conditions" on the AT&T/Bell South merger as one of the new signs of the times.

They introduced the bill in the last Congress, but as an amendment to a larger video franchise reform bill,the vote to add it to the bill was an 11-11 tie, with ties meaning the amendment did not pass.

Co-sponsors of the bill's latest incarnation include John Kerry (D-MA), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), and Barack Obama (D-IL).

“We applaud Senators Dorgan and Snowe for reigniting the essential Net Neutrality debate on Capitol Hill," said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press. "Their continuing commitment will help make competitive and affordable broadband services a central issue in the 110th Congress."

Not applauding was phone company, Verizon. While the company said it supports consumers' rights to Internet access, "Net Neutrality – better named Net Regulation – is trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist," said Peter Davidson, Verizon seniorVP for federal government relations.

"We expect a robust debate. In the end, most policymakers will focus on how to increase broadband deployment, and wonder how Net Regulation advances that goal. It’s ironic that this bill is introduced at the same time the Consumer Electronics Show is filling the news with broadband-enabled innovations," he said in a statement released Tuesday. "There is a ‘disconnect’ between consumers’ desires for new products and services and the stifling effects of this bill. Turning to Net Regulation at this point would be a huge step backward."