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Rep. Markey Issues Statement on Net Neutrality
By Rep. Ed Markey [Editor’s note: the following statement was read by Massachusetts Representative Ed Markey, ranking Democrat on the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, at a press event on May 18, 2006.] Good Afternoon. Thank you all for coming. We are here today because Congress is poised to fundamentally change the Internet as we know it. Just a few short weeks ago, the House Telecommunications Subcommittee took a vote that will likely go down as a defining moment in the history of the Internet. Defining, because the vote on the Markey Net Neutrality Amendment put on the line the historic principle of nondiscrimination on the Internet, and historic because the vote on the Markey amendment lost 23-8. But the vote on the Markey Net Neutrality Amendment was a wake-up call. It highlighted what was at stake in the fight against the Barton-Rush bill (HR 5252) the future of the internet. It began a challenge it is now up to the Internet community in all its great diversity and energy and entrepreneurial glory to rise up to save something very special: the Internet as it exists today. In the full Energy and Commerce Committee, due to the attention we drew to the issue of Net Neutrality, we improved our vote while still losing 34-22. In the next few weeks, the COPE bill (HR 5252) will likely go to the House floor. I will be seeking to offer the Markey Net Neutrality Amendment to Save the Internet on the House floor so that every member of Congress can fully debate this issue and all Members of the House can be recorded as to where they stand on the future of the Internet. The Bell companies want to exert control over the Internet. They say they do not intend to block access to any website, but they do want to start charging content providers and web-based businesses for accessing high speed lanes on the Internet. They say all they want to do is find new ways of offering some consumers more services and making more money. We have no problem if one consumer wants super-high bandwidth and wants to pay $100 a month for it while another only needs $20 a month speed. But once they buy their connection to the Internet, don’t start to limit access to certain content based upon whether those Internet destinations ALSO paid new fees and broadband taxes to the phone company. If two consumers go into a car dealership and one wants to buy a Ferrari and another decides upon a Ford Taurus. That’s their choice. The Ferrari is expensive, and it has all sorts of bells and whistles. But once those two consumers drive the Ferrari and Taurus off the lot, the car dealership shouldn’t be allowed to tell them where they can and cannot drive. We don’t have certain roads or destinations just for Ferraris or just for Taurus drivers. And they certainly shouldn’t be permitted to put up new toll booths to extract fees on those highways. That limits freedom. That limits exploration and adventure. And that’s not the way the information superhighway — the Internet — was meant to be either . The Net Neutrality Amendment I will seek to offer on the House floor when the COPE bill comes up for consideration will offer Members of the House a clear choice a choice between siding with the broadband designs of 3 or 4 large companies, or standing with the Internet community.This is an opportunity to vote to keep the Internet the way it is, or to place this precious network in the hands of a small handful of powerful CEOs, who have already indicated plans to start charging new broadband taxes and discriminatory fees. It is about allowing thousands of innovators, entrepreneurs, and smaller, as-yet-less powerful voices get equal access to the Internet community, or instead, to snuff out this wonderfully-chaotic environment and allow Verizon, AT&T;, BellSouth and others afflict the Internet with their bureaucratic, analog-era, utility-mindset. The Bell companies clearly preferred allowing this debate to occur below the radar in Washington. Well, we won’t let them do that. Our goal is to have a full debate and ultimately record on the House floor where every member stands on Net Neutrality. And that in part is why we are here today. Increasingly, Washington is starting to realize that the Internet community is tuning in and will not be ignored. There are literally millions of Americans and American businesses who use and rely upon the Internet every day. Since I offered my amendment in the Telecommunications Subcommittee just a few short weeks ago, nearly 700,000 citizens have signed a petition to Congress asking for strong Network Neutrality provisions on “savetheinternet.com”. Diverse groups from the National Religious Broadcasters, the Christian Coalition, the Gun Owners of America, to the ACLU, Common Cause, Free Press, and Moveon.org are united in telling the phone and cable industries to keep their hands off the Internet and in support of Net Neutrality and Internet freedom. The message today is that the Internet community is organizing, using the Internet and its online resources and tools, to rise up and help save the Internet itself. And we are asking people to sign that petition on savetheinternet.com, and to call Congress and tell Representatives to support a free Internet, to support the Markey Net Neutrality bill. So, for all of you watching right now and clicking in, let me encourage you contact your Representative right now. You can help stop Congress from heading down a dangerous road to stifle the openness of the internet, endanger our global competitiveness, and warp the web into a tiered Internet of bandwidth haves and have-nots. I now have the pleasure of introducing a very special guest. Moby is well-known for both his originality, creativeness, and musical versatility. His many albums exhibit many musical influences and have touched upon several musical genres. He has been nominated several times for Grammy Awards for his works. We are honored to have Moby here today because he is emblematic of countless artists and musicians, of all political persuasions or of no political persuasions! who support keeping the Internet as a wonderful vehicle for free expression, for experimentation, and innovation. This article relates to:
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