Democrats want Republicans to suffer for killing net neutrality

Democrats are making Republicans pay for killing net neutrality.

The Senate Democratic leadership announced Tuesday that their plan to overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to kill net neutrality rules now has the support of 50 senators. That puts them one vote shy of clearing the Senate, but they don’t really have a chance of preserving net neutrality via the Senate; their true aim is to cause the Republicans and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai as much pain as possible, following the FCC’s mid-December vote to undo the rules that kept internet players on a level playing field.

The Dems’ instrument of choice is something called a Congressional Review Act measure, which allows them to overturn federal agencies’ policies within 60 days of implementation. Last Monday, Democrats announced they had enough support to force a vote on the measure, which will force recalcitrant Republicans into stating their position on the record.

In the unlikely event that the Democrats pick up one more vote in the Senate (they already flipped Maine Republican Susan Collins) and get their bill’s counterpart in the House of Representatives passed, then it would require the Trump White House to actually veto the bill.

“Every member of Congress is going to say they support an open internet, but now it’s time to put up or shut up,” said Hawaii Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz in a press release.

Net neutrality, or the principle that internet providers aren’t allowed to throttle speeds or otherwise mess with the way consumers use the internet, is a significantly losing issue for Republicans; 53 percent of Republican voters actually support the Obama-era rules protecting net neutrality, according to a November Morning Consult poll.

While the Congressional fight is largely about politics, activists and politicians are making more-concrete policy and legal maneuvers elsewhere.

Advocacy groups and Silicon Valley giants plan to go to war against Pai and the FCC in the courts. After largely sitting out the net neutrality fight prior to the December vote, tech companies including Facebook and Google are now joining a suit brought by the groups Public Knowledge and Free Press.

And at the state level, legislators in California, New York, and elsewhere have passed bills meant to protect regulations locally that were removed nationally.

“If the Trump administration won’t protect consumers, the State of California will,” California State Senate leader Kevin de León told the New York Times.