House Votes to Repeal Net Neutrality
House lawmakers on Friday voted to roll back the FCC's net neutrality rules, dealing another political blow to one of Chairman Julius Genachowski's top priorities.
The full chamber cleared the Republicans’ measure on a mostly party-line 240-179 vote, despite the protests of Democrats who said the chamber should have instead been focusing on the looming threat of a government shutdown.
Still, House Republicans repeatedly questioned the agency's authority to enact that order in the first place — a point stressed Friday afternoon by Rep. Greg Walden, the leading Republican on the chamber's communications subcommittee. Walden slammed the FCC for an order he said amounts to an "end run around" a D.C. federal court decision, issued in 2010, which found the FCC's original legal basis for pursuing net neutrality to be unsound.
The full chamber cleared the Republicans’ measure on a mostly party-line 240-179 vote, despite the protests of Democrats who said the chamber should have instead been focusing on the looming threat of a government shutdown.
An uphill battle now awaits the Republicans' resolution of disapproval, a vehicle by way of the Congressional Review Act that gives Congress a say in evaluating agency rulemakings.
An identical effort is pending action in the Senate, where industry leaders expect the measure to encounter serious political roadblocks. Even if the Senate does move forward, the White House has already said it would veto an attempt to undo FCC rules that require Internet providers to treat all Web traffic equally.Still, House Republicans repeatedly questioned the agency's authority to enact that order in the first place — a point stressed Friday afternoon by Rep. Greg Walden, the leading Republican on the chamber's communications subcommittee. Walden slammed the FCC for an order he said amounts to an "end run around" a D.C. federal court decision, issued in 2010, which found the FCC's original legal basis for pursuing net neutrality to be unsound.
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