Some small progress in the Net Neutrality fight. Bill passes the senate, but getting the bill past the House is another story.
Senate passes measure repealing changes to net neutrality rules
By Ted Barrett and Daniella Diaz
The Senate voted Wednesday to pass a measure that would repeal changes to net neutrality rules that were recently adopted by the Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission.
The measure, which was backed by all 49 Democrats and Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John Kennedy of Louisiana, will be sent to the GOP-led House, where it'll likely go nowhere -- and President Donald Trump is unlikely to back it.
While Collins' support had been public leading up to the vote, Murkowski's and Kennedy's "yes" votes came as a surprise to some.
After the vote, Murkowski described herself as "frustrated" by the politics of the net neutrality debate that she says hurts her large and rural state, which has unique internet needs.
"I voted to hopefully get beyond the politics on this, which is the seesaw back and forth between Republican FCC and a Democratic FCC that doesn't lend any level of certainty to the process," she told reporters.
She continued: "I'm frustrated where we are today. We've basically moved forward a measure that isn't going to become law because this President isn't going to sign it. And so we send yet another political message. When are we going to get down to the actual legislation that both sides profess we need to have?"
Democrats used the Congressional Review Act to force a vote -- a law that allows Congress to repeal agency rules and regulations on a simple majority vote, instead of a 60-vote threshold needed to break procedural hurdles on most legislation, the kinds of traditional roadblocks where Senate leadership could typically hold up such a proposal.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke after the vote to begin debate earlier Wednesday, arguing that "at stake is the future of the internet."
"That fundamental equality of access is what has made the internet so dynamic," he said on the Senate floor. "Net neutrality protected everyone ... that era, the era of an open Internet, will unfortunately soon come to an end."
He continued: "The Democratic position is very simple. Let's treat the internet like the public good that it is."
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