We fell
one vote short:
The Senate commerce committee endorsed a sweeping overhaul of telecommunications laws Wednesday moments after rejecting, in a dramatic tie vote, an amendment that would have preserved the status quo of equal pricing for all Internet traffic, an issue that has come to be known as network neutrality
....just before the 22 senators on the committee endorsed the television reforms and dozens of other changes, they deadlocked 11-11 and thus rejected an amendment that would have required the Federal Communications Commission to write regulations to prevent phone and cable companies from charging special fees for preferred delivery of video content.
The fight ain't over yet.
It wasn't immediately clear when the measure will come to the Senate floor and, indeed, within moments of the commerce committee's final vote, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, used a parliamentary move unique to the Senate that could effectively prevent any vote on the full bill "until it includes strong net neutrality provisions."
Not sure what that parliamentary move was, but thank god for Senator Wyden.
Of course, if you were to believe Verizon, this is a non-issue....
Verizon, which said it needs a free hand to levy new charges on big content providers to help upgrade Internet access to the home, said the 15-7 vote on the final measure proved that legislators are more concerned about unleashing competition in the paid television market than over how to price Internet traffic.
"Net neutrality is clearly divisive and ill defined and many senators do not want it (that issue) to stand in the way of consumer video choice,'' said Verizon spokesman David Fish.
Can someone tell me why these two issues are being smashed together? Is this a shell game? What am I missing?
Keep up the fight - and don't give in.