NET NEUTRALITY WATCHERS NOW AWAIT SENATE'S NEXT MOVE

摘要

Proponents of 搉et neutrality?licked their wounds Fri. and promised a tougher fight in the Senate. The House rejected 152-269 a measure sponsored by House Telecom Subcommittee Ranking Member Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and backed by an amalgam of Internet firms, consumer and public interest advocates and religious and family groups. While the movement has its supporters in the Senate, like Sens. Olympia Snowe (R- Me.) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Internet players said it's too soon to tell how they'll fare on the other side of Capitol Hill. An early order of business would be getting at least one more GOP co-sponsor on the Snowe-Dorgan bill (S-2917). Commerce Committee Ranking Member Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Cal.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have signed on to the bill. Net neutrality backers pledged to get more lawmakers from both sides of the aisle aligned with them. nnNet neutrality stands a better chance in the Senate than the House because there's "perhaps a better understanding of the fundamental technology implications of net neutrality on innovation on the Internet," said Consumers Union Senior Policy Analyst Jeannine Kenney. She said senators have "greater sensitivity to the gatekeeper problem" in general in the telecom industry. But the Senate is no more or less tech- savvy than the House, a net neutrality legislation opponent told us. The institutional difference that matters is that in the Senate, there are more mechanisms to stop a bill. Still, Senate Democrats have proposed amendment language similar to what failed in the House, and a revised version of Commerce Committee Chmn. Ted Stevens' (R-Alaska) draft telecom bill, which calls for an FCC study on net neutrality, is expected today (Mon.). There was originally talk of a hearing tomorrow and a mark-up next week, said Public Knowledge Pres. Gigi Sohn. Trying to get a bill out of committee before the July 4 holiday is "ambitious," she said, but she said she knows Stevens "wants to move a bill -- make no mistake about it."