On the recordApril 15, 2016
I have no further requests for time, and I am prepared to close. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, this has been an interesting discussion on the floor this morning. For people who are tuned in, I think that I want to stay away from Federal talk, telecommunications talk, governmentese. What this debate is all about is the Internet. There is a clear difference between how the Democrats view the Internet and how to protect its openness and its accessibility, and that rests in net neutrality--not a very sexy term. What it means is that no ISP can get in the way of the consumer. All you have to do is look in your purse or in your pocket. What you take out and the content that you view and whatever the Internet carries, no company can get in the way of that-- to chop it up, to slow it down, to speed it up, to charge more. Now, our Republican colleagues have fought mightily, and I salute them with their mightily launched campaign in that they don't believe in that, and that is really what is underneath this. They talk about Federal bureaucracies. They don't like that. They talk about bureaucrats. They don't like them. They talk about the President. They don't like him. What is at the heart of all of this is that we believe in that open, accessible Internet. We do not believe that the executive branch--in this case, the FCC--should be able to regulate broadband rates. We have said so. We have said so time and again.…
