Whatever hopes lawmakers had for hashing out a compromise that could result in a net neutrality law this session grew distant on Wednesday, as House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman said he was dropping his efforts to move on a bill that staked out a centrist view in a polarizing debate.
Republican committee leaders and members had signaled that they would not support the bill in its current form, issuing fresh warnings against regulating the Internet. While Waxman’s bill had included a provision that would have barred the Federal Communications Commission from reclassifying broadband as a so-called Title II service, a move supported by Republicans, GOP members said they could only support the bill if it dealt narrowly with FCC authority, rather than include the nondiscrimination provisions.
With net neutrality legislation all but a dead letter this session, what happens next? Enterprise Networking Planet takes a look.
Efforts by House lawmakers at crafting a bipartisan compromise to pass legislation on the contentious issue of net neutrality have derailed, very likely quashing the prospects for any bill on the subject this session.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, announced late Wednesday that Republican members had withdrawn support for the compromise bill he had been shopping around the committee, revisiting the partisan fissure that has characterized the debate over net neutrality for more than half a decade.