At long last, the 32-month circus featuring Congress and the Federal Communication Commission is over.
The swearing in Monday of Anna Gomez as the fifth FCC commissioner breaks the agency’s 2-2 deadlock on issues, allowing chair Jessica Rosenworcel to take steps to restore net neutrality rules that were rescinded under then-President Donald Trump.
Rosenworcel on Tuesday announced that she will move to reverse the rules that bar internet service providers from blocking or throttling traffic, recreating an open internet that is essential for innovation and economic growth and fostering the next generation of tech entrepreneurs. It’s a concept backed by tech pioneers such as Tim Berners-Lee and Vincent Cerf since the beginning days of the internet. They believed that the future of innovation, freedom of speech and democracy in America depends on strong, enforceable net neutrality rules.
The American people agree. Polls show that net neutrality is supported by 75% of the population. That includes President Biden, who made restoring net neutrality a key element of his campaign.
Biden nominated Gigi Sohn to replace Commissioner Ajit Pai, who resigned the day Trump left office. But Senate Republicans blocked Sohn’s confirmation for more than two years, claiming that her “radical” views disqualified her. Sohn’s so-called radical views consisted of her calling Fox News “state-run propaganda” during the Trump administration and her service as an Electronic Frontier Foundation board member, which defends digital privacy, free speech and innovation. Senate Republicans’ real problem with Sohn was her position as a top aide to former FCC Chair Tom Wheeler, who was rightly credited with installing the toughest net neutrality laws in U.S. history.
Biden withdrew Sohn’s nomination in May and then nominated Gomez, a telecommunications attorney who had worked for the FCC in several positions for 12 years. She had also been a vice president for federal and state government affairs for Sprint Nextel.
The current FCC rules allow broadband providers such as Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Comcast a free rein that allows them to rake in billions while serving as kingmakers. They have the power to pick winners and losers online by charging content providers and users higher rates for faster service. Pai argued that would allow the broadband powers to hire more people, invest in network improvements, making for a “better, cheaper” internet. That didn’t happen. If it had, Biden wouldn’t have had to announce on June 26 a plan to invest more than $40 billion to deliver high-speed internet in places where there’s either no service or service is too slow.
Pai’s rescinding of net neutrality laws left a checkerboard of rules and regulations by various states across the nation.
Rosenworcel reportedly wants the FCC to vote in October on new net neutrality laws. Creating a level playing field for the tech industry’s newest wave of entrepreneurs can’t happen too soon.
