Web Pro News, November 9, 2006
By Jason Lee Miller

Whether the Network Neutrality debate is officially settled amongst charged, polarized stakeholders is an issue that will be tabled for the moment. Until this week, the issue was bottled up in a Republican-controlled Congress, as Democrats met defeat in both committee and the House floor. But a sweeping left-wing victory may change that.

Detractors have relegated Net Neutrality to a partisan issue, which, if looking at the voting record in Congress, certainly seems that way. The few Republicans that were on the fence were often pressured by party leaders to fall in line.

MoveOn.org's Adam Green related that Representative Joe Barton (R-TX), the now lame duck Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, pressured Republican no-votes on Net Neutrality while in committee with not-so-subtle "the chairman strongly recommends a no vote" on this issue. Green said GOP members, almost entirely, followed those recommendations, effectively killing Net Neutrality protection.

"He's not the chairman anymore," said Green. "This will send a signal that they should do the right thing. A lot of no-votes will become yes-votes."

Though Net Neutrality has been painted partisan in the past, outside the Capitol building it has been anything but that. SaveTheInternet.com, a grassroots organization that sprang up last Spring to pull the issue to public attention, has attracted 1.2 million petitioners, joining together the most venomous of political enemies. The most surprising teammates, MoveOn.org and the Christian Coalition took out a full-page advertisement in the New York Times to voice their combined support.

But that was off Capitol Hill. In Congress, it's been a straight party line vote, with Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) leading the opposition with old-world political tricks of the trade. Though Stevens has demonstrated no real understanding of the issue, referring to the Internet as "a series of tubes," the Republican senator has been doing all he can to suppress it.

Now that Democrats now hold both the House and the Senate, Green says supporters are "going on the offense." Key players will be Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who will become the new chair of the House Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommitee, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), who is expected to take Baron's place as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and presumed Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who recently added Net Neutrality to her list of important issues.

In the Senate, Olympia Snowe, a Republican, and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) will continue to push the Snow-Dorgan Net Neutrality bill they introduced last May. "I have a feeling a new environment will result in Congress with new allies, hopefully including more Republicans," said Green. "It shouldn't be a partisan issue." The biggest obstacle, he said, will be educating Congress on a complex issue. This, in theory, would avoid any further embarrassing "tubes" analogies.

The telecommunications industry lost almost as big as the Republicans in the midterm elections. Powerhouses like Verizon and AT&T have spent vast amounts of money lobbying Republicans to see it their way — so aggressively with campaign contributions that it often appeared legislators were in the telecom pocket.

Verizon had no comment on the election results and what it meant for them. Green however, still had plenty to say. "AT&T and Verizon have awoken a sleeping giant at the exact wrong time because there are now over a million people who are actively interested in expanding Internet freedom at a time that we have a new Congress that is willing to take on entrenched interests."

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