Bills
| 3.23.22

Should Net Neutrality be Overturned? (S. 993)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is S. 993?

(Updated August 12, 2020)

This bill would repeal the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) net neutrality regulations, which classify internet service providers as common carriers and prohibit them from blocking content, throttling traffic based on content, or being paid to prioritize traffic or certain content through “fast lanes.” It would also prevent the FCC from issuing a similar rule in the future without authorization from Congress.

Argument in favor

The hands-off approach the federal government had taken toward regulating the internet prior to imposing net neutrality led to unprecedented innovation and growth in a matter of decades. Net neutrality stifles that innovation and should be repealed.

Argument opposed

Without the protections of net neutrality, internet service providers would have the ability to block content, throttle consumers’ internet speed, and get paid to prioritize certain content through “fast lanes.” Net neutrality must remain in effect.

Impact

Individuals and businesses that use the internet; internet service providers; and the FCC.

Cost of S. 993

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Sponsoring Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced this bill repeal the FCC’s “net neutrality” regulations and prevent them from being re-issued without Congress’s approval:

“Few areas of our economy have been as dynamic and innovative as the internet. This is largely because the federal government has taken a hands off approach that has allowed permissionless innovation to deliver unthinkable technological advances in such a short amount of time. But now this engine of growth is threatened by the Federal Communications Commission's 2015 Open Internet Order, which would put federal bureaucrats in charge of engineering the internet’s infrastructure.”

Supporters of net neutrality argue that internet access should be considered a public utility, and internet service providers regulated as common carriers so they can’t block, throttle, or prioritize content. When Lee introduced this legislation during the last session of Congress, a column in Motherboard called it a “manifestation of a long-running Republican crusade to undermine the power of federal regulators to police corporate America.”

This legislation has the support of 10 cosponsors in the Senate, all of whom are Republicans.


Media:

Summary by Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: Public Domain)