Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Small Business Broadband Deployment Act, H.R. 4596, which would exempt certain small broadband providers with fewer than 250,000 subscribers from the transparency provisions of the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet rules, with a contingent sunset of five years. Public Knowledge commends Congress for its bipartisan support of the FCC’s authority to protect consumers.
The following can be attributed to Kate Forscey, Associate Counsel for Government Affairs at Public Knowledge:
“Public Knowledge is pleased to see Congress moving forward together on this compromise legislation. Although we maintain that it was not wholly necessary, as the FCC had already voted to exempt smaller broadband providers from the transparency rules in its original Open Internet proceeding, we applaud this bill for respecting the FCC’s authority to ensure essential consumer protections over broadband Internet access. Perhaps most significantly, the bill’s continuation serves as a model of what a functional bipartisan progress looks like when Democrats and Republicans are willing to meet one another at the table.”
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.