Net neutrality defenders announce ‘epic final protest’ to demand Congress repeal FCC rollback before fast-approaching deadline

"Our best chance to save #NetNeutrality is by filing the CRA before December 10th."

By
Jessica Corbett
-
266
SOURCECommon Dreams

Fight for the Future announced Wednesday that on Nov. 29, supporters of restoring nationwide net neutrality rules – which the Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rolled back last year – are planning “an epic, final protest to pressure lawmakers before a crucial deadline to save the internet.”

Supporters of the Obama-era net neutrality protections, which blocked internet service providers (ISPs) from prioritizing or throttling access to certain online content, are urging Americans to contacts their members of Congress to fight for a vote before the winter holidays on a Senate-approved Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would reverse the repeal.

The measure still lacks the support it needs in the House to advance to President Donald Trump’s desk before this congressional session ends.

“We’ll need a simple majority of sign on to a ‘discharge petition’ in order to force a vote past leadership to the floor. That means we’ll need to convince all the Democrats and about 25 Republicans to support the CRA,” explains Battle for the Net, a coalition backing the resolution. “The clock is ticking – if the CRA resolution doesn’t get a vote this year, it dies when the new Congress comes into session in January 2019.”

Although the majority of Democrats support restoring the rules and will take control of the House in January, Republicans gained two Senate seats in the midterm elections earlier this month and the race in Mississippi has advanced to a runoff.

Advocacy groups have launched a scoreboard to track where lawmakers stand on the CRA resolution to help constituents determine whether they need to put pressure on their representatives. According to the real-time tracker, only one House Republican – Rep. Mike Coffman of Colorado – has announced his support for the resolution.

However, some Democrats also would need to be convinced by constituents to vote in favor of the resoultion for it to pass. Fight for the Future, on Twitter, highlighted the 16 House Democrats who still oppose it:

Democratic supporters, meanwhile, continue to proclaim their dedication to restoring net neutrality:

To push members of the House to pass the resolution before this congressional session ends, net neutrality advocates are relying on three key tactics:

net neutrality

 

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