FCC and Net Neutrality: What Ever Happened to Transparency?
Diane Katz /
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is slated to vote Tuesday on an Internet regulation scheme hatched by Chairman Julius Genachowski. It’s bad enough that the commission is attempting yet again to supersede its statutory authority—despite a court ruling halting a previous attempt to regulate the Web. The fact that the public has been barred from reviewing the proposal argues for swift and severe congressional intervention.
Opponents, of which there are many, predict that Genachowski’s ploy would dissuade investment in broadband and much-needed network expansion. Fellow FCC commissioner Robert M. McDowell, writing in The Wall Street Journal today, characterized the chairman’s power grab as “jaw-dropping interventionist chutzpah.”
Since assuming the FCC chairmanship last year, Genachowski has been trying to impose so-called “net neutrality” regulations that would restrict the freedom of Internet service providers to manage their network transmissions. The latest incarnation of controls is reportedly based on a legislative proposal previously floated by Representative Henry Waxman of California—and soundly rejected by Congress. Moreover, the chairman’s prior claim to jurisdiction was firmly rebuffed in April by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. (more…)