Chairman Walden makes plea on net neutrality bill

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) asked the White House to turn off Democrats' "shock collars" and let members negotiate a legislative deal on net neutrality. Chairman Walden made another plea for congressional Democrats to come to the negotiating table following the Federal Communications Commission's approval of regulations to reclassify the Internet under authority governing traditional telephones. "I'm hopeful now that the commission has acted that Democrats will have their shock collars turned off and they'll actually be able to cross the line and work with us," he said. "I am at a loss for how to make my plea any clearer to my colleagues," he said in prepared remarks. "Please work with us to draft a bill. What the FCC did last week is ill advised, illogical, and illegal. And while there are other tools at Congress’s disposal to express our displeasure with this action, I remain firmly committed to a bipartisan legislative solution."

Additionally, Chairman Walden said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s timeline for drafting new net neutrality rules does not hold up, judging from a meeting the two had in November. "And in that meeting, Chairman Wheeler assured me that he was committed to net neutrality without reclassification of broadband," Chairman Walden said. "This stands in stark contrast to press reports of Chairman Wheeler’s ‘summer epiphany’ and decision to impose net neutrality through reclassification as a telecommunications service." Chairman Walden also speculated that a few people at the White House "helped, probably, write" the proposal.