Committee approves Kinzinger bill to prevent FCC regulation of broadband rates

The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved legislation on Tuesday that was sponsored by U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) to prevent the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from regulating broadband rates.

The No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act, H.R. 2666, would ensure that the Obama administration upholds a promise to not regulate broadband rates that was made when Internet access was reclassified under Title II of the Communications Act.

“We were assured by President Obama and (FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler) that the commission was not going to use Title II to regulate rates for broadband,” U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said. “This bill will enshrine that commitment into law, simply ensuring the FCC cannot use its self-declared expansive authority over the Internet to engage in rate regulation.”

Kinzinger, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, noted that Wheeler has indicated numerous times that the FCC doesn’t intend to regulate broadband rates.

“In front of this very committee (Wheeler) agreed with this language,” Kinzinger said. “Not only that, but then Chairman Wheeler was asked the same question by my colleague on the other side of the Capitol. In that hearing, (U.S. Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) posed the same question to the chairman, and once again Chairman Wheeler reiterated his support for the premise of this legislation.”

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, said the bill would give the FCC authority to protect consumers from fraudulent actions and contract breaches by carriers.

“Meanwhile, it gives certainty to innovators in the Internet marketplace so that they can continue to develop new services to save consumers money without having their creativity second guessed, after-the-fact by Washington bureaucrats,” Walden said.