Ron Wyden: “several weeks ago I came to the Senate to announce I will do everything in my power to block this Senate from…”

“several weeks ago I came to the Senate to announce I will do everything in my power to block this Senate from considering the major overhaul of the telecommunications legislation until that legislation includes specific provisions to ensure that there is no discrimination on the Internet. A discrimination-free Internet essentially is what the net neutrality debate is all about. Certainly colleagues have been hearing a great deal about this subject as those who oppose net neutrality have spent millions and millions of dollars trying to convince the American people and the Congress that somehow discrimination on the net is a good thing. They have made a big point of trying to say that net neutrality is a very complicated issue, it is one involving technical issues of communications law, and it ought to be something left to lawyers and lobbyists to sort out in Washington, DC. That is not good enough for me and I don't think it is good enough for the American people. In fact, more than 500 organizations with views all across the political spectrum have come together to support net neutrality and a discrimination-free Internet. This is the fourth time I have come to the Senate to outline examples of what will happen if discrimination is allowed on the Internet and also to respond to some of the most directly asked questions about what net neutrality is all about. Today I begin my discussion with a new development just reported by the Reuters News Service.…”