As Net Neutrality Rules Expire, McCaskill Calls on House of Representatives to Follow Senate Action to Restore Consumer Internet Safeguards
On day that net neutrality rules officially end, Senator: ‘It’s time for the House to follow our bipartisan vote in the Senate in favor of net neutrality and restore these critical protections’
WASHINGTON – As repeal of critical net neutrality rules that provide consumer internet safeguards goes into effect today, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill called on Speaker Paul Ryan and Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives to follow the bipartisan vote in the U.S. Senate to restore net neutrality rules.
“Missourians have been loud and clear that they want a free and open internet that allows consumers and small businesses fair access to the internet content of their choice,” McCaskill said. “It’s time for the House to follow our bipartisan vote in the Senate in favor of net neutrality and restore these critical protections.”
In a letter to Speaker Ryan, McCaskill and her colleagues wrote, “Without these protections, broadband providers can decide what content gets through to consumers at what speeds and could use this power to discriminate against their competitors or other content. Under this new regime, the internet would no longer be a level playing field. Instead, big corporations that could pay would enjoy the benefits of a fast lane and speedy delivery of their content to consumers while those that could not pay these tolls—such as startups and small businesses, schools, rural Americans, and communities of color—would be disadvantaged.”
McCaskill is a strong supporter of ensuring the internet is free and open for Missouri consumers and small businesses, voting last month to restore critical net neutrality rules that provide consumer internet safeguards. Last December, highlighting the concerns of thousands of Missourians who submitted public comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the thousands more who contacted her office directly, McCaskill urged the agency to keep its current net neutrality rules in place and scrap efforts to eliminate them.
McCaskill’s December letter to the FCC also cited her bipartisan investigation with Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio into the customer service and billing practices of the nation’s largest cable and satellite providers, most of which are also among the nation’s largest providers of broadband service. McCaskill expressed concerns that the changes to net neutrality rules would eliminate the FCC’s ability to adopt truth in billing rules for broadband that currently exist for cable and phone companies.
McCaskill has urged the FCC to protect consumers on a variety of issues—fighting to protect consumers from unwanted robocalls by urging the Commission to do more to implement robocall-blocking technologies, and urging action to prevent fraud in Lifeline, a program that provides subsidized telephone and broadband service to low-income Americans, but has been a target for abuse.
Full text of letter HERE.
Visit mccaskill.senate.gov/
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