FCC Commissioners to Testify in Senate Commerce

The Senate Commerce Committee will get to question all five FCC commissioners about their Title II votes.    

According to committee chairman John Thune (R-S.D.), all five commissioners will be testifying March 18 at an oversight hearing on net neutrality.  

The commission voted 3-2 along party lines on Feb. 26 to reclassify Internet access as a telecommunications service subject to some Title II regulations.  

Thune has co-sponsored draft legislation to clarify the FCC's broadband regulatory authority. It would block Title II classification while preventing blocking, throttling or paid prioritization, three key elements of the FCC's new open Internet order. But it would also limit the FCC's authority to regulate broadband under Sec. 706 authority, which is also central to the FCC's Title II decision, as well as to its decision Thursday to preempt state laws limiting municipal broadband build-outs.

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John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.