Enlarge / US Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) delivers a speech at the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. (credit: Getty Images | Alex Wong)
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who has tried to overturn net neutrality rules and help states impose limits on municipal broadband, will be the new chairperson of a Congressional telecommunications subcommittee.
Blackburn will chair the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, committee leadership announced yesterday. She’ll take over from Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), another frequent critic of the Federal Communications Commission who was recently selected by fellow Republicans to become chair of the full Energy and Commerce Committee.
Blackburn has consistently tried to unravel FCC attempts to regulate broadband providers. In 2015, she filed legislation titled the “Internet Freedom Act” to overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s then-new network neutrality rules that prohibit blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization. The net neutrality rules still remain in effect, but Republicans are expected to attack the rules again under President-elect Donald Trump. Blackburn has claimed that the FCC’s net neutrality order is an attempt to “set all the rates” that broadband providers charge for Internet service, even though the FCC hasn’t tried to do that and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said he had no intention of doing so.
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Source: Ars Technica – Author of anti-net neutrality “Internet Freedom Act” gains leadership position