Sen. DeMint introduces bill blocking net neutrality, perceived FCC overreach

Sen.
Jim DeMint (R-S.C.)
introduced a bill on Wednesday designed to block the Federal
Communications
Commission (FCC) from imposing net neutrality and other regulations.

The
Freedom for Consumer
Choice Act (FCC Act) would force the commission to prove consumers are
being
harmed by lack of choice before it can impose new rules.

It
would also force the FCC
to weigh the potential cost of action against benefits while imposing a
five-year sunset on FCC regulations. Rules can be renewed if they pass
muster
under a market-based standard.

Original co-sponsors will
include Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), John Ensign (R-Nev.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.),
Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), John Cornyn (R-Texas) and John Thune (R-S.D.). 

“The FCC’s rush to take over
the Internet is just the latest example of the need for fundamental reform to
protect consumers,” DeMint said in a statement on Wednesday. “Congress must
pass the FCC Act to protect consumer choice in media services, preserve
competition that drives down costs and drives up options, and prevent the loss
of hundreds of thousands of jobs that the free market Internet economy has
created.”

A statement from Hatch added,
“Since the FCC has a hard time listening to the American
people, we’re stepping forward with commonsense legislation to keep these
unelected bureaucrats’ hands off the Internet.”

The FCC disputes it has any aspirations to “regulate the
Internet.” Rather, its rules are designed to keep powerful Internet service
providers in check, it says. Consumers might otherwise lack protections against
the phone and cable companies that can control Internet traffic, it says.