House Energy & Commerce Committee leadership sent out an e-mail of the committee's accomplishments and they included the bill trying to undo the FCC's Restoring Internet Freedom order deregulating internet access service.
Related: Dems Urge Vote on Save the Internet Act
The bill, the Save the Internet Act, passed the Democrat-controlled House but was essentially DOA in the Republican-controlled Senate. But that did not prevent the legislators from claiming that effort to "reverse the disastrous repeal by Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in late 2017 of critical net neutrality protections," as one of the session's accomplishments.
The FCC voted 3-2 to reclassify internet access as an information service not subject to common carrier regs, as well as eliminating bright-line rules against blocking, throttling and paid prioritization and a blurry-line conduct standard that allowed the FCC to identify things it felt impeded an open internet but weren't a violation of any of the rules.
“This year, we’ve worked to put consumers first and strengthen our economy by passing legislation through the House to restore a free and open internet," said E&C Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-Pa.).
Other accomplishments were bills aimed at stopping illegal robocalls, improving broadband mapping, and securing networks, as well as holding hearings on edge providers' liability protections against third-party content and two hearings on oversight of the FCC.
