On the heels of lawsuits from Verizon and MetroPCS, a Washington senator on Tuesday unveiled net neutrality legislation intended to solidify the Federal Communications Commission's authority over broadband regulation.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat, said in a statement that she believes the FCC's existing net neutrality rules are valid but not currently strong enough. Her bill – the Internet Freedom, Broadband Promotion, and Consumer Protection Act – would create a new section in Title II of the Communications Act for the FCC's net neutrality principles.
The bill also explicitly bans paid prioritization and requires broadband providers to work with local and middle-mile partners on reasonable network management terms. The rules would apply to wireline and wireless providers.
Some of the current rules apply to wireless, and while paid prioritization is not banned outright, the FCC said it would likely not stand up to commission scrutiny.
Cantwell's legislation would also require broadband providers to provide service upon request when reasonable. If the universal service fund is extended to include broadband, meanwhile, only broadband providers that allow for standalone high-speed Internet service would be able to participate in the new fund.
"My bill returns the broadband cop back to the beat, and creates the same set of obligations regardless of how consumers get their broadband," Cantwell said in a statement.
Sen. Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, is a co-sponsor of the bill. He spoke out against the FCC net neutrality rules at a recent event, saying they did not go far enough.
"Net neutrality is one of the most important issues facing our country today," Franken said Tuesday. "The recent FCC ruling on net neutrality does not do nearly enough to protect consumers, and this bill is designed to maintain a free and open Internet. This isn't just about speech, it's also about entrepreneurship and innovation, and it's about our economy."
The FCC's authority over broadband has been a major question in the net neutrality debate since April, when a court ruled that the commission had no right to hand down a 2008 network management enforcement action against Comcast. Suddenly, the FCC's authority over broadband was called into question – right in the middle of its net neutrality proceeding – and so FCC lawyers scrambled to craft some sort of legal framework that would give them authority over the issue.
One proposal suggested reclassifying broadband as a telecom service instead of an information service under Title II of the Communications Act. The FCC eventually ditched that plan as an olive branch to ISPs and said it was confident that it could rely on the Communications Act to establish its authority. Consumer groups and Democrats, however, worried that that would open the FCC up to legal challenges; a prediction that has come to pass. Verizon and MetroPCS have sued the FCC in recent days, arguing that it has no authority over the issue.
The FCC said it remains confident in its legal authority.
Whether Cantwell's legislation has any legs remains to be seen. The House is now Republican-controlled, and GOP members have vowed to take down the FCC's net neutrality rules as quickly as possible.