Dems Urge Senate Vote on Save the Internet Act

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and a couple other Democrats called of an immediate vote on the Save the Internet Act, the bill that would reclassify internet access as a telecom service subject to common carrier regulation and reinstate the net neutrality rules eliminated by the FCC under chairman Ajit Pai as well as the general conduct standard to get at future conduct unbecoming an open internet but not falling under those rules.  

That came in floor speeches Tuesday (Dec. 10) to mark the second anniversary of Pai's deregulatory Restoring Internet Order. 

While the Save the Internet Act passed the Democratically controlled House last April Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has declined to schedule a vote in the Senate, and is unlikely to do so at the urging of Markey or fellow Dems Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). 

The same three Senators made a similar Senate floor stand back in June to mark the one-year anniversary of the Restoring Internet Freedom (RIF) order's effective date.  

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.