FCC Preemption Amendment Approved

The Republican-controlled House has approved an amendment to the Financial Services bill—the FCC appropriations bill—that would prevent the FCC from preempting municipal broadband regulations.

The amendment, which was introduced by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), is unlikely to make it past the Democratically controlled Senate but for now it is part of the must-pass bill.

"The People's House has spoken. We don't need unelected bureaucrats in Washington telling our states what they can and can't do with respect to protecting their limited taxpayer dollars and private enterprises," Blackburn said Wednesday (July 16).

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.