Senate to vote on net neutrality repeal today, Obama counters with a veto threat

The united states Senate is slated to vote on a repeal of the FCC’s controversial net neutrality regulations today, a few days before they’re scheduled to go into effect . Today’s vote, like most in this day and age, is predicted to be divided along party lines, with most Democrats standing in favor of the guidelines, and Republicans calling for them to be overturned. Texas Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, who sponsored the resolution, claims that the FCC’s regulations would obstruct innovation and investment by jeopardizing the openness upon which the net has thrived, so far. “The net and technology have produced more jobs on this country than simply about another sector,” Hutchinson argued. “It’s been the cradle of innovation, it doesn’t have an issue, and it doesn’t need fixing.” Senate Republicans aren’t the single ones taking issue with the foundations, either. Both Verizon and MetroPCS have already publicly aired their grievances, with the previous filing a proper appeal in late September.

But Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller believes the GOP-led opposition won’t be strong enough to conquer his Democratic majority. “There’s still 53 folks, and if we stay together we’ll win,” Rockefeller said. “i feel we will prevail.” Despite the fact that they do not, they’ll still have the backing of the White House, which has already threatened to veto the resolution, should it survive past the Senate floor. “It might be ill-advised to threaten the very foundations of innovation inside the Internet economy and the democratic spirit that has made the web a force for social progress worldwide,” the White House said in a press release, adding that the FCC’s rules provide an “effective but flexible” process of preserving the web’s intrinsically wild, wild west nature. Rockefeller, however, certainly isn’t banking on a presidential veto to bail his party out. “You would take a budget way out and just say, ‘What if we fail, then Obama will veto it,’” he explained. “But that speaks so badly people.” All told, it’s shaping as much as be another net neutrality showdown at the Hill, but we’ll keep you updated at the latest developments.

Source

This post is tagged: democratic majority, democratic spirit, kay bailey hutchinson, presidential veto, republican senator, senate republicans, senator kay bailey hutchinson