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c0lo [soylentnews.org] writes:

ArsTechnica [arstechnica.com] and [techtimes.com] others [vice.com] report [slate.com] on a bill (called the Internet Freedom Act [house.gov]) introduced by the Tennessee Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn.

These rules "shall have no force or effect, and the Commission may not reissue such rule in substantially the same form, or issue a new rule that is substantially the same as such rule, unless the reissued or new rule is specifically authorized by a law enacted after the date of the enactment of this Act," the Internet Freedom Act states.

The legislation has 31 Republican [congress.gov] cosponsors.

[...]
In the latest election cycle, Blackburn received $25,000 from an AT&T political action committee (PAC), $20,000 from a Comcast PAC, $20,000 from a cable industry association PAC, and $15,000 from a Verizon PAC, according to the Center for Responsive Politics [opensecrets.org].

[...]Blackburn's Internet Freedom Act wouldn't even enforce a weaker version of net neutrality, consistent with her past proposals. In 2011, she filed an "Internet Freedom Act" that would have struck down the FCC's original net neutrality rules that were enforced without a Title II reclassification.

In February 2014, long before FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler decided to use Title II, Blackburn introduced another "Internet Freedom Act" that would have prohibited the FCC from issuing any new net neutrality rules.

Blackburn's announcement yesterday notes that she "has been leading the fight against the Obama Administration’s Net Neutrality regulations since they were first proposed in 2010 by Former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski." Blackburn is Vice Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

If you want to send comments to FCC on the Net neutrality/Open internet issue, be aware that FCC opened [fcc.gov] a special mailbox for them in addition to their usual comments [fcc.gov] page.

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