Sara Jerome
The Hill
9/23/2010
Full consensus may not be the end game of an effort by House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (Calif.) as he crafts a bill on net neutrality, according to House aides involved in the process.
Waxman may move forward with a bill that does not get full agreement from all sides in the debate but that seems to have enough support to pass the House, three aides said.
As Congressional staffers weigh input from public interest groups and cable, phone, and Internet companies, their consideration has in part turned to whether moving without the approval of certain major stakeholders would sink the bill, the aides said.
Waxman “is a master legislator. He prevents the perfect from becoming the enemy of the good,” one aide said…
…The fate of such a bill could depend in part on how much the dissenters push back…
…A court decision in April raised questions about the agency’s authority to enforce rules preventing broadband providers from favoring certain traffic on their networks.
Stakeholders who have long worked against strict net-neutrality rules, including AT&T, Verizon, and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, have been persuaded to discuss some form of federal rules after the FCC threatened to place their broadband businesses under the strictures that cover telephone service, a possibility they completely oppose.
Read the entire article at The Hill.
Also at The Hill, “Commerce secretary: Threats to Internet freedom increasing, can hamper growth”
Update: GatewayPundit, “Net Neutrality Update”
