House Passes Unnecessary Anti-Transparency Bill

Today the House of Representatives passed a bill, H.R. 4596, that would exempt many broadband providers from the Open Internet Order’s transparency rules for five years. The FCC granted smaller providers this exemption last year and recently extended it through 2016. The Senate has not passed the bill or similar legislation.

The following statement can be attributed to Joshua Stager, policy counsel for New America’s Open Technology Institute:

Customer transparency is a fundamental obligation of every Internet service provider. This principle is embedded in the FCC’s Open Internet Order, which was the result of a year-long public process in which an unprecedented 4 million Americans participated. The bill that passed the House today would create an unnecessary loophole in this order, impacting millions of Americans who pay for broadband services.

We appreciate the efforts of Congresswoman Eshoo and others to narrow the scope of this legislation, but the fact remains that the bill’s sponsors have not explained why Congress needs to step in now—especially given that the FCC already granted this exemption in a more appropriate and narrowly tailored manner.