The U.S. Senate has voted not to move forward with a resolution that could have overturned the net neutrality rules the FCC passed last December.
By a vote of 52-46, the Senate killed the Republican-backed “Disapproval of Federal Communications Commission Rule Regulating the Internet and Broadband Industry Practices.” The vote followed party lines.
The bill, introduced by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), would have kicked off a process that could have overturned the FCC’s decision to prevent broadband providers from blocking access to individual websites or applications. Supporters believe that some regulations are necessary to stop ISPs from blocking or discriminating against content flowing through the web. Opponents believe that net neutrality amounts to government over-regulation of the Internet.
“The Internet and technology have produced more jobs in this country than just about any other sector,” Hutchison said earlier this week. “It has been the cradle of innovation, it does not have a problem and it does not need fixing.”
Despite the fact that the U.S. House of Representatives passed a similar “resolution of disapproval” in April, the Senate vote was mostly symbolic. Tuesday President Obama threatened to veto the bill, and there was little chance Congress would have been able to override the veto.
“It would be ill-advised to threaten the very foundations of innovation in the Internet economy and the democratic spirit that has made the Internet a force for social progress around the world,” the White House said in the veto threat.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, FotoAta
More About: Kay Bailey Hutchison, net neutrality, president obama, trending, U.S. Senate
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