Maloney Leads Final Effort to Force Vote to Save Net Neutrality

WASHINGTON — A day before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expected to vote to rollback Net Neutrality rules, Representative Sean Patrick Maloney led a final effort to force a vote on his legislation to block the FCC’s rulemaking. The procedural motion to force a vote on Rep. Maloney’s Save Net Neutrality Act failed on a party-line vote of 229-189.

Click here to watch Rep. Maloney’s remarks

“We may have lost this battle, but the war isn’t over,” said Rep. Maloney. “Millions of people care about Net Neutrality and our coalition of everyday Americans, committed groups, and lawmakers will work to make this right no matter how long it takes.”   

Democrats attempted to force a vote on the bill using a procedural motion called “ordering the previous question,” but ultimately failed. The motion allows the House to bring a bill to the floor for a vote even if it was not scheduled to be voted upon.

The FCC’s rollback of Net Neutrality relies on a formal rulemaking process. The Administrative Procedure Act (APA) requires federal agencies to consider relevant comments as part of this process, known as Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). The APA requires agencies to undergo a formal comment period and process for considering the opinions of people who would be affected by a new proposed rule. The FCC has come under intense scrutiny for its bungling of the comment process on this proposed rule.

The Save Net Neutrality Act would simply prevent the FCC from relying on the NPRM process that will conclude with a final vote tomorrow. The bill refrains from making policy prescriptions, but instead invalidates the process that culminates in the creation of an enforceable rule authorized by the APA. Without the ability to rely on the rule, the FCC would have to start the NPRM process over from scratch.

The bill was endorsed by the Free Press Action Fund and the Open Technology Institute.