![425188-net-neutrality[1].png_thumb=y&width=740&height=426.png](https://i.imgur.com/9rrQ6z6.png "425188-net-neutrality[1].png_thumb=y&width=740&height=426.png")
http://www.pcmag.com/news/344766/gop-moves-to-gut-net-neutrality-fcc-budget
>Republicans have opposed FCC efforts to impose net neutrality rules for years, and they are trying again with their 2017 budget proposal.
>Not only would the plan prevent the FCC from enforcing its net neutrality rules, it would also end its plan to boost set-top-box competition, not to mention gut the agency's funding.
>"We are still reviewing impacts and we will work with the committee staff to make them aware of potentially critical resource shortfalls," an FCC spokeswoman told PCMag.
>The $21.7 billion proposal cuts the FCC's budget by $69 million to $315 million and prohibits the agency from implementing net neutrality orders until "certain court cases" are resolved (which could happen any day now).
>The proposal also stops the new "unlock the box" rules, which would open up TV data to innovators who can create new consumer hardware and software to replace traditional set-top boxes, "until a study is completed."
>Meanwhile, the bill "prohibits the FCC from regulating broadband rates," something it recently proposed for business data services. And the GOP wants the agency to make new rules public before they are voted on by the commission. As it stands, the FCC chairman drafts a proposal and circulates it to fellow commissioners before it's voted on at a public FCC meeting. At that point, the draft is open to public comment before a final vote, but the GOP wants the public to have access to drafts for 21 days before the first vote.
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>Wheeler wrote that the House’s proposed rule “would introduce significant uncertainty into the commission's ability to enforce the three bright-line rules that bar blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization rules, as well as our general conduct rule that would be applied to issues such as data caps and zero rating.”
>In addition, Wheeler said the Republican proposal would also "cast doubt" on the FCC’s ability to ensure that broadband providers receiving universal service subsidies do not overcharge their consumers, while also hamstringing aspects of the commission's merger review process. “I write to make plain that this bill is not consistent with the views I expressed last year,” Wheeler said.
>An Ongoing Fight
>As a result of the legislation, the FCC would effectively be barred from developing any regulations on Net neutrality regardless of how the market landscape might change in the future. Wheeler wrote that the House’s proposed rule “would introduce significant uncertainty into the commission's ability to enforce the three bright-line rules that bar blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization rules, as well as our general conduct rule that would be applied to issues such as data caps and zero rating.”
>In addition, Wheeler said the Republican proposal would also "cast doubt" on the FCC’s ability to ensure that broadband providers receiving universal service subsidies do not overcharge their consumers, while also hamstringing aspects of the commission's merger review process. “I write to make plain that this bill is not consistent with the views I expressed last year,” Wheeler said.
>An Ongoing Fight
>As a result of the legislation, the FCC would effectively be barred from developing any regulations on Net neutrality regardless of how the market landscape might change in the future.
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Soooo on the one hand you have Comcast/Verizon ripping you off,,, and on the other you have whoever currently holds the conch in Washington fucking up what you can and can't reasonably view on the net
This is not a matter for snap judgement desu
Politicians severely cutting budgets of government agencies that give them and their investors trouble? No way, that never happens.
