Cantor Slams FCC, Obama Over Net Rules

Report says effort to "regulate the Internet" is among those that have hurt economic growth

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/23/2012 8:51:03 PM

In a report entitled The Imperial Presidency, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) took aim at the President over what he said was "massive regulatory overreach," including network neutrality regs, that is part of a "job-killing agenda."

Identifying it as one of "over 40 separate examples" of the administration skirting the law and Congress, Cantor said that businesses have been forced into court to defend against network neutrality regulations "that the agency has no authority to issue."

Verizon and MetroPCS sued the commission over its Open Internet order, a case currently being briefed.

Their argument is "that the FCC lacks statutory authority to do what it did, which they describe as a hodgepodge of provisions to justify the FCC's claim of broad authority. They say that even if the FCC had provided a basis for asserting ancillary authority, it did not demonstrate the rules were "necessary to achieve any statutorily mandated task."

They also say the rules are arbitrary and capricious and unconstitutional -- violating the First and Fifth Amendments. The First because "broadband networks are the modern-day microphone by which their owners engage in First Amendment speech," and the Fifth because it was a government takings without compensation.