State Officials Push Back Hard on Pre-emption

Groups representing state legislatures — including some state legislators themselves — joined with ones made up of state regulatory commissioners and governors Monday to talk with reporters about the threat of the FCC pre-empting state municipal broadband laws.

That threat has come from both the FCC and the White House.

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has signaled he plans to vote Feb. 26 on petitions from two municipalities — Chattanooga, Tenn., and Wilson, N.C. — seeking federal pre-emption of state laws circumscribing municipal broadband laws. He is widely believed to have the votes to grant those petitions.

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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.