WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to turn the Internet into a two-lane highway of discriminatory service, tolls, and bottlenecks by knocking down an amendment to protect the open architecture of the Internet.   Representative Edward J. Markey, the ranking Democrat on the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications offered a “Network Neutrality” amendment cosponsored by Democratic Representatives Boucher, Eshoo, and Inslee which was voted down (Y-22 , N-34).

“Today’s vote goes right to the heart of the effort to preserve the Internet and its open, non-discriminatory nature.

“Today over 1,100 citizens went to the Democratic Leader’s website (http://www.democraticleader.house.gov/SaveTheInternet) and stepped up to do what many members of the Energy and Commerce Congress refused to do – protect the internet as we know it.

“The decision made by this panel is backward looking.  Right now we are heading down a dangerous road that will stifle the openness of the internet, endanger our global competitiveness, and warp the web into a tiered Internet of bandwidth haves and have-nots.  This is the introduction of creeping Internet protectionism into the free and open World Wide Web and we need to rise up to stop it.”

Since the first network neutrality amendment was voted on in the Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee, a broad and diverse coalition has been growing exponentially in support of strong network neutrality protections. It includes leading Internet companies such as Ebay, Yahoo, and Amazon, as well as entrepreneurs, small businesses, consumer groups, Common Cause, Gun Owners of America, the National Religious Broadcasters, moveon.org and the ACLU. 

In recent weeks, www.savetheinternet.com was launched to give voice to a broad coalition of Internet proponents, and their petition has gained over 250,000 signatures in less than a week. This morning, House Democrats launched a “Citizen Co-sponsorship” of the net neutrality amendment on the Democratic Leader’s website http://www.democraticleader.house.gov/SaveTheInternet so that concerned citizens could co-sponsor the Markey amendment and make their voices heard.

For more information about Rep. Markey’s work on telecommunications, along with updates and video from today’s Committee proceedings, please visit http://markey.house.gov