Public Interest Groups Urge House To Reject Rate Regulation Bill

More than 50 public interest groups have joined in a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) urging the House to vote against the No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act (HR 2666). The bill would prevent the Federal Communications Commission from imposing rate regulations on broadband service, but Democrats and the groups on the letter, which include Public Knowledge, Free Press and Future of Music Coalition, argue the bill would go far beyond blocking telephone style rate regulations to gutting the FCC's authority to impose its Open Internet prohibitions on blocking, throttling content or anticompetitive paid prioritization, all of which have rate implications.

"Although the FCC is not setting rates, stripping away its authority to review monopoly charges and other unjust and unreasonable business practices would harm everyone," they wrote. They also said that the legislation would "undermine the FCC's efforts to protect consumer privacy, including oversight of so-called 'pay-for-privacy' plans that require customers to pay significant additional fees to their broadband provider to avoid having their online data collected and sold to third parties."