So too have Barton’s potential replacements – Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) – all warned the agency not to move forward.
The GOP leaders’ initial, visceral reaction follows news Thursday that the FCC could address net neutrality at its upcoming December meeting, according to several sources with knowledge of the situation.
The shape and scope of any net neutrality proposal still remain unknown, and it’s not even fully clear the FCC intends to take action in December. The FCC, meanwhile, has dismissed the early ruminations as “pure speculation at best.”
But the agency’s reassurances have hardly quieted top Republicans seeking the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee next Congress. Should the FCC proceed on net neutrality, many of those members’ threats could become realities for Chairman Julius Genachowski.
Sending that message Friday was Upton, considered the front runner for the committee gavel should Barton not receive a term-limit waiver. He explicitly promised “the FCC will be prominently featured and Chairman Genachowski will soon be a familiar face on Capitol Hill” if the agency moved ahead on net neutrality.
“I hope that the only turkey cooking next week will be in our kitchens on Thanksgiving and not at the FCC,” the congressman said.
Stearns, meanwhile, chided the agency for potentially moving on a controversial issue during recess. “Ramming through Internet regulations would ignore the will of a bipartisan majority of Congress and the American public,” said the congressman, who currently leads Republicans on the House’s top tech subcommittee.
Shimkus similarly skewered the agency on Friday: “The FCC should not be trying to institute a government takeover of the one industry that is currently expanding and creating jobs when we currently have close to ten percent of Americans unemployed,” he said. “The FCC’s attempt to take over the Internet will hinder both of these things.”
A congressional aide told POLTICO that Barton – with other GOP members’ support – would signal his disapproval in a letter due sometime soon.
But even those who aren’t on the committee are beginning to voice their displeasure with the FCC. “I support ensuring that the Internet remains free from discrimination, but not by imposing heavy-handed regulations on the industry and not through back door regulations negotiated in secret,” said Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va), who co-chairs the bipartisan Congressional Net Caucus.
“Furthermore, Congress has not given the FCC clear authority to regulate in this area. There are much less intrusive ways to handle this,” he said.
Together, the acerbic words of the FCC’s incoming Republican overseers present a challenge for not only net neutrality supporters in Congress, but for Genachowski and others at the FCC. These angry members could respond by summoning Genachowski for countless hearings, constraining the agency’s authority or limiting its federal dollars.
Still, it isn’t immediately clear how the agency intends to proceed on net neutrality: It has not yet released its December meeting agenda. According to agency rules, the chairman’s office must release its agenda by Wednesday for its Dec. 15 meeting.
Most are instead interpreting Genachowski’s remarks at a Web 2.0 conference in California as evidence that some action regarding net neutrality is on the horizon.
"That'll happen," Genachowski said of potential new rules.
All of the speculation about what steps the agency may next take arrives about a month after lawmakers failed to reach a net neutrality compromise of their own. A proposal spearheaded by outgoing committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) shortly before the election break faltered in part because those same top GOP players voiced their concerns.
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