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Can the FCC's 'Net Neutrality' Decision Be Overturned in Congress? (newsweek.com)
"Cancel the funeral and get ready to fight: Net neutrality is far from dead," argues Evan Greer, the campaign director for the pro-net neutrality group Fight for the Future in Newsweek:
Our elected officials in Congress have the power to reverse what is swiftly becoming one of the U.S. government's most unpopular decisions ever. And if they don't, they'll pay for it come election season... 26 senators have already signed on to a Resolution of Disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), a vehicle to overturn the FCC's net neutrality repeal with a simple majority vote in both the Senate and House. [UPDATE: 28 Senators have now co-sponsored the resolution]. It's not going to be easy, but it's increasingly within reach with Democrats in lock step against the FCC rollback and half a dozen Republicans already publicly criticizing the move.
Outside of Washington, DC, net neutrality is not a partisan issue. Voters from across the political spectrum overwhelmingly agree that they don't want their cable companies controlling where they get news, how they stream music and videos, or which apps they use to pay for things, get directions, or communicate with friends and family. Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T poured money into misleading advertisements, ghost written op-eds, and astroturf campaigns, to fool customers into thinking that they would voluntarily abide by the principles of net neutrality... But after all of that, they've completely failed to build any real grassroots support for their attack on net neutrality, from the left or the right. And every member of Congress knows that. 75 percent of Republican voters support the net neutrality protections the FCC just slashed... No matter how hard they try, telecom lobbyists will just never convince a meaningful number of Republican voters that killing net neutrality, and ending the internet as a free market of ideas, is a good thing. And that's what gives us a unique chance to get our normally gridlocked Congress to take action and overrule the FCC's politically toxic order.
Lawmakers in every state have been getting hammered for months with millions of phone calls, emails, protests, constituent meetings, media requests, and pressure from small businesses at volumes that just never happen. Net neutrality is becoming one of the most talked about political issues in recent human history... The FCC did something that a supermajority of people in this country oppose. Our elected officials have to decide whether to rubber stamp that betrayal or overturn it. The internet makes the impossible possible. If we harness our anger and direct it strategically, we can get the votes we need to restore the net neutrality protections that should never have been taken away in the first place. Any lawmaker who refuses to listen to their constituents will have to go on the record right before an election as having voted against the free and open web. They would be wise not to underestimate the internet's power to hold them accountable.
Outside of Washington, DC, net neutrality is not a partisan issue. Voters from across the political spectrum overwhelmingly agree that they don't want their cable companies controlling where they get news, how they stream music and videos, or which apps they use to pay for things, get directions, or communicate with friends and family. Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T poured money into misleading advertisements, ghost written op-eds, and astroturf campaigns, to fool customers into thinking that they would voluntarily abide by the principles of net neutrality... But after all of that, they've completely failed to build any real grassroots support for their attack on net neutrality, from the left or the right. And every member of Congress knows that. 75 percent of Republican voters support the net neutrality protections the FCC just slashed... No matter how hard they try, telecom lobbyists will just never convince a meaningful number of Republican voters that killing net neutrality, and ending the internet as a free market of ideas, is a good thing. And that's what gives us a unique chance to get our normally gridlocked Congress to take action and overrule the FCC's politically toxic order.
Lawmakers in every state have been getting hammered for months with millions of phone calls, emails, protests, constituent meetings, media requests, and pressure from small businesses at volumes that just never happen. Net neutrality is becoming one of the most talked about political issues in recent human history... The FCC did something that a supermajority of people in this country oppose. Our elected officials have to decide whether to rubber stamp that betrayal or overturn it. The internet makes the impossible possible. If we harness our anger and direct it strategically, we can get the votes we need to restore the net neutrality protections that should never have been taken away in the first place. Any lawmaker who refuses to listen to their constituents will have to go on the record right before an election as having voted against the free and open web. They would be wise not to underestimate the internet's power to hold them accountable.
Iâ(TM)m as Pro net-Neutrality as anyone however Title II was the wrong solution. Pass a real bill in Congress that focuses on filtering and throttling without Title II garbage.
Can the FCC's 'Net Neutrality' Decision Be Overturned in Congress?
Of course it can. Congress created the FCC, so it can make whatever law it wants to override FCC's decision. Will it is a better question.
Isn't this a basic US Government question?
The FCC's operates under the Administrative branch, and it's charter was created by an act of congress in 1934. The net neutrality repeal is just a application of it's authority to make rules, not laws.
Congress can enact laws to direct it's behavior, so long as those laws are constitutional. Which, I imagine would be a pretty straightforward application of the interstate commerce clause?
Why aren't you encrypting your e-mail?
Congress can certainly pass law that makes the net neutrality decision illegal going forward, and thus FCC must replace it. That's not overturning it, though.
The problem is that congress has turned into a binary partisan farce where votes are cast not based on what the congressman thinks, but whether it opposes the adversary. So it won't happen. There's really no way out of this quagmire either, from within the system itself.
I give you the same answer I gave you before: Try this and watch Facebook, Twitter et al move abroad where you cannot control them. To them it does not matter where they offer their service, Facebook is just as useful to the average US citizen if it hailed from Iceland or the Philippines instead of the US. An ISP in Norway is kinda useless if you live in Albuquerque.
Also, if I don't like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and so on, I can simply use the internet without even touching them. Now please tell me how to do this without an ISP. Note that most Americans can't simply move to another ISP because their ISP got the de facto monopoly, usually state sponsored.
So please excuse me if I say that these problems are not even remotely comparable.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
First, as several others have already pointed out, Congress can make any law it likes, subject to judicial review. So, they can make a law that requires the FCC to implement net neutrality, just like there are laws requiring all sorts of federal agencies to do specific things.
Second, this line is a real gem:
Our elected officials in Congress have the power to reverse what is swiftly becoming one of the U.S. government's most unpopular decisions ever. And if they don't, they'll pay for it come election season (emphasis added)
This statement makes it clear that Evan Greer is unwilling to accept reality. Please name one elected official that "paid for" their action or inaction on any of the following issues:
The system in the US has become one that so long as a politician adheres to a particular ideology, the voters who adhere to the same ideology will support the politician and those who oppose the ideology will oppose the politician. This is largely the case even in the face if criminal or other behavior which should make someone unsuited for public office.
Look at how many people still voted for Roy Moore in Alabama. Or how many people immediately called for the resignation or removal of a politician or high profile figure of an opposing political party while being silent or slow to speak out against those in their own party.
It is all a complete a mess and believing that net neutrality will be the thing that gets people to put aside their political apathy and vote some bums out of office is beyond laughable.
You know, not Obama's version of monopoly carriers that bundle services or the post-Bell monopoly all-in-one carriers. We need to split up Spectrum, AT&T and cohorts, allow free access to any fiber/copper and poles that had government subsidies or land grabs involved (which is almost all of it) and split Internet from TV and phone carriers.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
The Congressional Review Act (CRA) needs to be passed in both the House and Senate, which both have Republican majorities (or to put it differently, Democrats do not have a definitive majority in either House or Senate). To get a perspective on the chances of this passing look at the 28 cosponsors of the bill NONE of which are republican. Suppose that somehow there are a few republicans do end up voting for this, then it heads to President Trump who can veto it.
Trump is the person that appointed Ajit Pai to head the FCC, and of course Trump knew that Pai would repeal net neutrality and undoubtedly they have discussed the issue in detail. Trump has praised Pai, so we know that Trump has no problems with net neutrality being repealed. It is virtually certain that if this reaches the Presidents desk, it will be vetoed.
Of course Congress can overturn a veto, with a 2/3 supermajority. While there is a slight chance in a republican congress that a simple majority can be found to overturn the repeal of net neutrality, there is *NO* chance that the hard line far-right will vote to repeal. Recent elections have purged moderate or "soft" politicians of both political parties. There aren't enough moderates to overturn a veto.
Life, yes. But that's not the same as humanity. The grass you walk on is alive. Still, you mow it, crush it, kill it, doesn't rise to the level of any particular level of notice.
The reason that pre-birth humans matter is because - when - they're human... not because they're alive.
And humanity cannot be present prior to the development of a nervous system.
Somewhere during pregnancy there is a fuzzy line that all of us here crossed, where the nervous system formed up sufficiently, and pain and suffering and previously unrealized potential potential becomes an actual thing. That's the line to draw, if indeed one is to be drawn at all, IMHO, but you'd better check with the female half of humanity before you decide even that is a done deal.
This business of "life begins at conception" is addled nonsense. It does, sure enough, but it's completely irrelevant. Any such law is just codified stupidity.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
That is a lie. They already pay an ISP for bandwidth. All it did was prevent double-dipping charges.
A bill, passed by Congress and signed by the President is *exactly* how Net Neutrality should have been implemented. If you remember at the time, the FCC Chairman said at the time the FCC was acting because Congress hadn't/wouldn't.
Ken
Money, doesn't not, and never has, win an election. Votes win an election., money is an excuse to make people feel like they have no power, so the become apathetic and don't participate.
If it was money, their would be no need for gerrymandering.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I don't give a fuck about companies, what I care about is how it affects me and other users of services. But maybe you can elaborate how I "hijack it with lies", I'd really love to know where I lied.
I know it's a common strategy to derail a conversation with "oh you lie" when you run out of arguments, without bothering to specify what the lie supposedly is, in an attempt to discredit the other side without having to provide any argument (because there essentially is none), but that won't be your tactic here, will it?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.