Debbie Dingell: “and my colleagues, this is a good amendment. If you want to improve the bill, and I suspect the Bells don't want you to…”

“and my colleagues, this is a good amendment. If you want to improve the bill, and I suspect the Bells don't want you to, and they may not even permit you to. But the hard fact of the matter is this preserves network neutrality. The bill, as it now constitutes, says that the FCC shall do certain things. But it denies them specifically the authority to write rules under which uniform treatment will be afforded to all persons. It imposes, or permits the imposition of huge fines. But the fines will never be imposed. What network neutrality does, it sees that everybody is treated alike with regard to use of the Internet. That has been a principle which has been applied to the Internet and Internet use since it was first originated. This legislation permits the Bells to begin to disregard that, to pick and choose whom they will serve, to determine the conditions under which they will afford service, and to create a situation where there will be no rights and no capacity for the user of the Internet or the companies which provide Internet service to see to it that they can protect their rights. The Markey amendment, which is before us, gives us some assurance that the FCC will be able to do some of the things that it should do to see to it that we preserve the Internet as we have known it, to protect the users, to protect the companies which provide this service, to protect the libraries, the schools, the individuals and the universities.…”