An effort by the Senate Republicans to prevent the Federal Communications Commission from receiving funding as a protest against its net neutrality rules proposals has now been stopped according to officials.
A member of staff for the committee recently advised “While we are still generally opposed to net neutrality regulations, we have decided to hold off on the amendment because (FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski) approached us and we are beginning a dialogue.”
Republican members who were criticising the move and saying that the businesses of network operators could suffer were called by Genachowski following his recent introduction of proposals for net neutrality rules according to an official from the FCC. The official said that Genachowski wanted to begin a conversation regarding the proposals to prevent network operators from blocking services and web content and this was the intention of the phone call.
The ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Kay Bailey Hutchison said that she would tie up funding at the agency for new regulation mandates by introducing an amendment to an Interior Appropriations bill, although a number of observers advised that due to the Democrat-majority Congress this move was unlikely to be passed.
The amendment that was to be submitted was co-sponsored by Senators John Ensign, Sam Brownback, David Vitter, Jim DeMint and John Thune.
The blocking of things that regulatory agencies were trying to achieve in a regulatory agency or the executive branch was a standard vehicle for Congress according to the head of technology policy research at Stifel Nicholas, Rebecca Arbogast.
She said “But the likelihood of it getting passed it pretty low. This is standard procedure and a time-honored tradition but the Republicans are in the minority.”
Source – Washington Post