Genachowski approaches Republicans on neutrality

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A posse of GOP senators led by Kay Baily Hutchison (R-TX) was going to try to prevent the FCC from funding net neutrality regulation, but is pulling back after FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski offered them a chance to talk.


Hutchison, along with John Ensign (R-NV), Sam Brownback (R-KS), David Vitter (R-LA), Jim DeMint (R-SC) and John Thune (R-SD), was going to tack an amendment on to a completely unrelated appropriations bill that would prevent the FCC from spending a penny to “develop and implement new regulatory mandates.”

Genachowski’s offer to enter into a dialog over the matter was accepted and the amendment was pulled.

There was of course little or no chance that Hutchison was going to have any success getting her amendment passed.

RBR-TVBR observation: This could be an indication that the net neutrality approach of choice will not be too heavy-handed, and at the very least, it is a nice gesture that did not have to be offered. Genachowski has said over and over that his goal is to protect the interests of consumers and innovators while at the same time encouraging investment. We can only hope that he finds a comfortable path that all competing interests can traverse together as comfortably as possible. We’ll be interested to hear with Hutchison’s posse thinks of their Genachowski chat.