Overnight Regulation: FCC repeals net neutrality rules | Trump touts deregulatory agenda | Labor board seeks input on union election rule

Welcome to Overnight Regulation, your daily rundown of news from the federal agencies, Capitol Hill and the courts. It’s Thursday evening here in Washington where Republicans are preparing for a vote on their tax reform bill next week. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), though, may not be on board.

 

THE BIG STORIES 

Net neutrality repeal: The Trump administration paved the way for a whole new internet on Thursday. 

The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 along party lines to repeal Obama-era rules that required internet service providers to treat all web traffic equally. 

Here’s why this is a big deal: 

Democrats, consumer groups and tech companies said the net neutrality rules were essential to prevent internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon from abusing their powers as internet gatekeepers. They say those companies will now have the power to block websites, throttle services and censor online content. 

Companies could give faster service to the internet traffic of companies with whom they have pay-for-play arrangements while slowing service for everyone else. 

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who was a leading force behind the repeal, argued broadband companies under the new regime will have to disclose publicly whether they engage in those practices. 

He said the Federal Trade Commission will have the authority to sue providers that deceive their consumers or use their powers to abuse competition on the web.

Read the full story here. 

The fight isn’t over yet:

Democratic attorneys general from Washington and New York state are vowing to sue over the repeal.

“The FCC just gave Big Telecom an early Christmas present, by giving internet service providers yet another way to put corporate profits over consumers,” said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in a statement shortly after the FCC vote.

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson also announced that he would sue to block the end of net neutrality rules on Thursday, releasing a similar statement.

Read more on the lawsuits here.

More on the net neutrality vote:

Democratic members of the FCC gave blistering dissent speeches on Thursday as the agency voted in favor of repealing net neutrality rules.

The FCC hearing room was also briefly evacuated Thursday moments before the agency was to vote on repealing its net neutrality rules.

After the vote, Netflix ripped the decision as “misguided.”

And Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg hammered the decision as “disappointing and harmful.”

 

Trump touts deregulation: President Trump announced plans for more deregulation in the coming year with the release Thursday of the administration’s second regulatory agenda.

At a ceremony in the White House, Trump said the federal agencies beat the goal he set when he took office to cut two rules for every new rule proposed and add no new regulatory costs to the economy.

“Today I’m proud to announce we beat our goal by a lot,” he said. “Instead of adding costs as so many others have done … for the first time in decades, we achieved regulatory savings. Hasn’t happened in many decades. We blew our target out of the water.”

The administration withdrew or delayed 1,579 planned regulatory actions in 2017, according to the semi-annual Unified Regulatory Agenda published by the White House Office of Management and Budget Thursday afternoon. The regulatory agenda acts as a policy blueprint of sorts for federal agencies.

Trump said his administration has eliminated 22 regulations for every one that has been added.

“Instead of eliminating two old regulations for every one new regulation, we have eliminated 22; that’s a big difference,” Trump said. “We aimed for 2 for 1 and in 2017 we hit 22 for 1, and by the way, those regulations that are in place do the job better than all the other regulations and they allow us to build and create jobs and do what we have to do.”

Trump, who is winding down his first year in office, has had few legislative victories, but has made headway in fulfilling his campaign promise to cut down the nation’s regulatory rulebook.

Read more here.

 

REG ROUNDUP 

Education: House Republicans are pushing a higher education bill that scraps requirements for colleges and universities to alert students to register to vote.

As part of legislation rewriting the laws governing colleges and universities, Republicans left out provisions added in 1998 and 2008 to ensure that schools make a good-faith effort to distribute voter registration forms to students enrolled at their institutions.

The House Education and the Workforce Committee approved the bill late Tuesday in a 23-17 party-line vote that largely went under the radar.

It would nix language requiring that schools request voter registration forms from their state at least 120 days before the voter registration deadline, and send students an “electronic communication” exclusively about voter registration.

It also eliminates language specifying schools are required to follow these requirements for general and special federal elections, state gubernatorial elections and elections for chief executives within the state.  

Read the story here. 

 

Labor: The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is asking the public to weigh in on whether it should keep or scrap a controversial Obama-era rule that speeds up union elections.

Business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have been pushing the NLRB to roll back the rule, which allows elections to be held in as few as 10 days from the filing of a petition.

Opponents have dubbed it the “ambush election rule,” claiming it gives employers little notice of an election and almost no time to discuss the issues with their workers.

Read the story here. 

 

Education: The state of California is suing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for refusing to process the debt relief claims of thousands of students who had federal student loans and were left in the lurch after the collapse of Corinthian College.

The 25-page complaint filed by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Thursday accuses DeVos of violating the Administrative Procedures Act by unlawfully delaying the approval of claims filed by defrauded students.

“What Secretary DeVos is doing is unconscionable,” Becerra said in a statement.

“After having their American Dreams stolen by a so-called higher education institution, Corinthian students are now being denied critical relief by a Secretary of Education hostile to their plight.” 

Read the story here. 

 

Environment: The Trump administration is moving forward on potentially updating the 26-year-old standards meant to keep lead out of drinking water.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Scott Pruitt reached out to groups representing states and municipalities in a Thursday letter, inviting them to meet next month about potential revisions the agency is considering to what’s known as the Lead and Copper Rule.

Timothy Cama has the story here. 

 

Interior: A survey conducted for the Interior Department found that 35 percent of its employees say they were harassed or discriminated against in the last year.

The department-wide findings come on the heels of a National Park Service-specific report released in October, which found that 38 percent of that agency’s employees have been harassed or discriminated against.

Timothy Cama again with the story here. 

 

In other news 

Democrats sat Trump to seek federal pay freeze and cuts to domestic security – The Washington Post

Trump’s EPA chemical safety nominee withdraws – The New York Times

What will the future look like without net neutrality?  – The Wall Street Journal

Trump’s mining regulator nominee was once dropped by the agency for doing “junk” work – Pro Publica