Democrat Ed Markey and Republican Chip Pickering have introduced a new bill called the "Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008." As Stoller explains, the bill does two things.
It makes explicit that Federal policy is to keep the internet open, and it mandates that the FCC go out and hold hearings outside of DC on whether Federal policy is preserving the openness of the internet, followed by a report.
It has limited to no enforcement provisions, and it doesn't really have a lot of teeth. It's nowhere near as strong as Markey's amendment last cycle, or the Snowe-Dorgan bill introduced earlier this year in the Senate. So why is the SavetheInternet coalition excited, and why is telecom shill Scott Cleland in a lather, calling this a wolf in sheep's clothing?
The answer is that this is not about passing a law in Congress, but about establishing net neutrality, broadband deployment, and an open internet as priorities for the next administration.... [T]his bill is an organizing vehicle for us to give the next FCC the political capital to move on a good number of important open media and open internet issues by helping the public ratify a different agenda through hearings and an official open internet Federal policy statement.
No action is going to happen on Net Neutrality in this Congress, this proposed legislation is an attempt to get us positioned for strong Net Neutrality legislation in the next Congress and a new president. The bill is also a good opening for us to keep Net Neutrality as a key issue this campaign season, particularly in campaigns for Congress.