Cliff Stearns: “It's a shame the gentleman from Massachusetts is not here. I appreciate always when he speaks his exclamatory speeches…”

“It's a shame the gentleman from Massachusetts is not here. I appreciate always when he speaks his exclamatory speeches, high emotionality. His idiosyncrasies that he brings to the House floor are obviously humorous. But I think he and the gentleman from Pennsylvania miss a very blatant fact: The FCC has never had the authority to regulate the Internet. In fact, the Comcast decision, the D.C. Circuit Court in 2010 indicated clearly the Court found that the FCC failed to demonstrate it had authority under Title I. Not even Title II, but under Title I, Mr. Markey, they had no authority. So if the D.C. court ruled that way, you would think that you would respect that. So they had no jurisdiction to regulate the Internet in any form. And as a result of what the FCC did in December, a major telephone communication company intended to sue. They stopped their suit because of a technicality, but they are going to move forward with it because they also believe the FCC doesn't have jurisdiction to regulate the Internet. So I am a little puzzled why you folks have come down here. I think all of you on the Democrats' side should realize there are over 60 Democrats on your side that signed a letter to the FCC in the last Congress saying they didn't want the FCC to regulate the Internet. So why don't you talk to me about your own colleagues, 60 of them, that agree with Mr. Walden and our republican Telecommunications Subcommittee on this issue.…”