On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee will vote on an
appropriations bill that would strip the Federal Communications Commission's funding for enforcing the new net neutrality rules that just went into effect.
What is particularly insidious about this provision is that it is part of a bill that appropriates money to the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission and various other critical government agencies. Republicans like Representative Andrew Crenshaw, who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services, want to make it hard for President Obama to veto the measure by putting it in legislation that keeps the government functioning.
In trying to thwart the F.C.C., Republican lawmakers are going against the wishes of the vast majority of Americans. A 2014 poll by the University of Delaware found that 81 percent of Americans oppose the idea that broadband companies like Comcast and Verizon should be able to charge companies like Netflix fees to deliver their content to users faster than information from other sources. This is just the kind of practice that the commission’s new rules would prohibit.
We've saved net neutrality countless times in the past. We need to do it again.
Call the leadership of the House Appropriations Committee and tell them to remove all references to the FCC from this bill and let the FCC do its job to create net neutrality rules.
You can also call your representative and tell him or her that if this amendment is included in the final bill, to vote against it. Demand Congress stop siding with cable companies and protect net neutrality.