DeGette Supports Congressional Effort to Reverse FCC’s Net Neutrality Roll-Back

Denver – Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, today said she would co-sponsor a congressional effort to restore Net Neutrality protections that were rolled back yesterday in a party-line vote by the Federal Communications Commission. DeGette supports a resolution to be introduced by Congressman Mike Doyle (D-PA), the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, reversing the FCC's new regulations.

"I have long supported Net Neutrality safeguards and have worked to prevent the FCC's recent efforts to reverse them," DeGette said. "Net Neutrality is essential to promoting freedom of expression, competition and economic growth on the internet. It creates a level playing field for consumers, innovators and small businesses. In ending the Open Internet Order, the FCC abdicated its responsibility to ensure that these values are safeguarded.

"My constituents feel strongly about this matter, too: Through social media, phone calls to my office, and day-to-day discussions at home in Colorado, they have made it abundantly clear that they value Net Neutrality as a means to ensure an open internet that protects free speech and promotes economic opportunity for all. Our fight doesn't end this week. The FCC vote was a setback, but not a defeat."

DeGette was one of 118 members of Congress who earlier this week sent a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai asking him to delay the FCC vote. In August, she was one of eleven Democratic members of the Energy and Commerce Committee to submit public comments arguing that the FCC's proposal was contrary to the intent of Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996.