Washington (July 9, 2021) – Senator Edward J. Markey
(D-Mass.) released the following statement regarding President Biden’s call for
the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reinstate net neutrality as part
of his Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy.
“The COVID pandemic has highlighted what we already knew:
broadband isn’t a luxury. Like running water and electricity, it is an
essential utility that everyone needs. So I strongly support President Biden’s
call for the Federal Communications Commission to reinstate net neutrality. As
soon as there are three Democratic Commissioners in place, the FCC must act
without delay to reclassify broadband as a Title II service and reassert its
authority over broadband. I also plan to soon introduce legislation to do the
same by statute. We cannot and will not stop working until net neutrality is
the law of the land.”
Over the years, Senator Markey has led the fight in
Congress to secure net neutrality. In 2014, Senator Markey
led the call for the FCC to
put the strongest net neutrality rules on the books, which the Commission did
in 2015 during the Obama administration. After the Trump administration’s FCC
repealed these rules, Senator Markey
filed a Congressional Review
Act (CRA) Resolution of Disapproval to save net neutrality, which
passed the Senate with bipartisan support. In 2019, Senator
Markey
introduced the
Save the Internet Act, which codifies the FCC’s
2015 Open Internet Order.
