Ed Markey: “I wish to follow up on what the Democratic leader was making reference to with regard to net neutrality. Today is the…”

“I wish to follow up on what the Democratic leader was making reference to with regard to net neutrality. Today is the day when net neutrality rules are gone, even though there is a way in which we, the Congress, can put them right back on the books. That is what happened in the Senate 3 weeks ago, when we voted 52 to 47 to put the net neutrality protections back on the books to ensure that they would be there for every American. As Senator Schumer was just pointing out, the ball is in the court of the House of Representatives--the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. We passed net neutrality in the Senate on a bipartisan basis. Senator Murkowski, Senator Collins, and Senator Kennedy of Louisiana voted for net neutrality. We know, as Senator Schumer just said, that if the vote was taken right now on net neutrality in the House of Representatives, it would win. We would be able to put those protections back on the books. Millions of people rose up throughout the last 6 months of last year, with 22 million of them contacting the FCC. Ajit Pai, the Chairman of the FCC, ignored those 22 million people, and by a 3-to-2 vote on the Federal Communications Commission, they took net neutrality off of the books. In other words, they officially stripped consumers of the protections that have allowed our economy and our democracy to flourish.…”