US Senate forces a vote that could restore net neutrality

While the minority party has limited options in bringing legislation to the Senate floor, Democrats used the procedural maneuver of a discharge petition, gathering enough support, to force a vote.

“Americans are pleading for Congress to restore the FCC’s net neutrality rules and now is the flawless time for lawmakers to act by voting for the CRA resolution that overturns the FCC’s 2017 repeal”.

The U.S. Senate is set to vote as early as next week on whether to reject the FCC repeal of the net neutrality rules.

One after another, 15 Democratic senators – almost a third of their caucus – stepped to a microphone on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to call for tough rules to protect net neutrality. The audio is below.

Net neutrality is the idea that all information should be able to pass freely through internet servers.

Net neutrality protections for consumers will formally die on June 11.

“The agency failed to listen to the American public and gave short shrift to their deeply held belief that internet openness should remain the law of the land”, Rosenworcel said in a statement.

Senate Democrats are also making a last-ditch effort to salvage the rules that they say maintain an “open internet”. They can join with big cable companies that want to control the internet for profit.

Minnesotans in rural communities across our state are at risk of losing their access to a free and open internet.

Gigi Sohn, a counselor to former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, recently told CNN that the future of net neutrality will likely “stay murky” through the remainder of this calendar year, “at the very least”.

The revised rules were a win for internet service providers like AT&T Inc ( T.N ) and Comcast Corp ( CMCSA.O ) but are opposed by internet firms like Facebook Inc ( FB.O ) and Alphabet Inc ( GOOGL.O ).

At the moment Democrats are unanimously supporting this resolution which leaves Markey only two votes from the Republicans in order to pass the Senate.

Net neutrality rules were enacted under the Obama administration to level the playing field and prohibit Internet providers from slowing down or blocking certain websites and applications.

Listen to GeekWire’s interview with Cantwell, a vocal advocate for net neutrality, below.

The Democratic senators are getting some help, though, with popular websites like Etsy and OKCupid issuing red alerts on Wednesday, encouraging visitors to contact members of Congress to help save net neutrality.