Technology

Pelosi says Democrats to introduce bill to bring back net neutrality this week

by Harper Neidig 03/04/19 03:21 PM CST

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Monday that Democrats will introduce a net neutrality bill to replace the open internet rules that were repealed in 2017.

{mosads}In a letter to her Democratic colleagues, Pelosi said a bill called the Save the Internet Act will be unveiled Wednesday and will be introduced in the Senate as well.

The text of the legislation has not been released, and it’s unclear what will be included in the bill.

Democrats have railed against the Trump administration’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) vote to repeal the net neutrality rules, which happened more than a year ago.

The 2015 regulations prohibited internet service providers from blocking or throttling websites or creating internet fast lanes.

Republicans and the broadband industry have called for legislation codifying net neutrality, but there remain some partisan divisions over what rules should be in effect and how they should be enforced.

The GOP has criticized the Obama-era rules as overly burdensome, in part because they reclassified broadband as a telecommunications service, which designates internet service providers as common carriers and opens up the industry to tougher regulation.

But many Democrats and consumer advocates believe the reclassification was necessary, as it put the industry under the FCC’s oversight, giving the agency the means to crack down on violations.

The repeal order is also facing a challenge from Democratic state attorneys general and consumer advocates.

Last month, a panel of federal appeals court judges heard oral arguments in the case, and they are expected to issue a ruling by the summer.

Updated at 4:12 p.m.