Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) today announced that she is cosponsoring a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to restore the 2015 net neutrality rules that have kept the Internet open and free. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted yesterday on party lines to eliminate the net neutrality rules. The CRA resolution is sponsored by Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and will be introduced when the new FCC rule is formally submitted to Congress.
“The FCC just voted to give the biggest corporations much more control over what people see on the Internet,” said Senator Gillibrand. “This was a shameful decision, and now that it has gone through, the biggest service providers could be able to decide which sites are fast and which sites are slow with little oversight. This is an attack on free speech, it’s a disturbing example of the corrupt relationship between corporations and the government, and I urge all of my colleagues to join this resolution and overturn this vote by the FCC.”
CRA resolutions allow Congress to overturn regulatory actions at federal agencies with a simple majority vote in both chambers. In accordance with the Congressional Review Act, the Senators will formally introduce the resolution once the rule is submitted to both houses of Congress and published in the federal register. Congressman Mike Doyle (D-PA) plans to introduce a CRA resolution in the House of Representatives.
The other cosponsors of Senator Markey’s CRA resolution include Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Gary Peters (D-MI), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Dick Durbin (D-IL).
A copy of the CRA resolution can be found HERE.