The US Senate voted 52-47 in favor of using the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to undo the FCC’s December repeal of federal net neutrality rules. The effort to use the CRA resolution of disapproval was led by Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey and announced with MassTLC back in January.
MassTLC has been actively advocating for Congress to intervene by putting forth federal legislation to remediate issues left by the FCC ruling and avoid a patchwork of conflicting new net neutrality laws passed by individual states.
The lack of a federal policy will encourage individual states to implement their own net neutrality regulations, resulting in a patch work of confusing and difficult to enforce laws. MassTLC reached out to its members to join in advocating for Congress to implement federal protections against blocking, throttling and anti-competitive behavior.
Signatories to our letter include: Tom Hopcroft, CEO, MassTLC; Mohamad Ali, CEO, Carbonite; David Askey, Co-Founder & CEO, Ascend Robotics ; Tom Axbey, President & CEO, Cloudhealth Technologies ; Lynn Bailey, CEO, Index Data; David Barbato, Co-Founder & CEO, Talent Retriever ; Peter Bauer, CEO, Mimecast; Dries Buytaert, Founder & Project Lead, Drupal, Acquia; Matthew Chisolm, Co-Founder & CEO, Cantina; Chris Comparato, CEO, Toast; Jeff Ernst, Co-Founder & CEO, SlapFive; Suresh Gopalan, Founder & CEO, ReSurfX; Laura Harriman, Founding Partner, Triverus Consulting; Eric Healy, CEO, NorthOut, Inc.; Paul Henderson, Founder & CEO, myharbors, LLC; Jeffrey Hibbard, CEO, IntervalZero; Kip Hollister, Founder & CEO, Hollister Staffing; Christina Inge, Founder, Thoughtlight; Chris Jennings, Founding Partner, Triverus Consulting; Richard King, Co-Founder & CIO, ConnectPay; Jack Little, President & Co-founder, Mathworks; Rory MacKean, CEO, Franklin Robotics ; Geoff Mamlet, Executive Chairman, Impact Hub Boston ; Abby Maxman, President, Oxfam America; Sarah McCrary, CEO, GasBuddy; Steven Minsky, CEO, LogicManager ; Udi Mokady, Chairman & CEO, CyberArk Software ; Meredith Moss, CEO, Finomial; Praveen Ramanathan, President & CEO, Ayantek, LLC; Stephen Sanzo, CEO, Isovera; Robert Seaver, Founder & CEO, Vivox; Trynka Shineman, CEO, Vistaprint ; Zach Slayton, Founding Partner, Triverus Consulting; Mary Ellen Sparrow, Co-Founder & CEO, NextShift Robotics; Debbie Theobald, Co-Founder, Vecna Technologies & Executive Director, Vecna Cares; Corey Thomas, CEO, Rapid7; Frank Wander, Founder & CEO, PeopleProductive ; Jason Walker, Co-Founder & CEO, Waypoint Robotics; Mike Zani, CEO, The Predictive Index; Tracy Zhen, President, Zipcar
The bill will now go to the U.S. House of Representatives where it stands little chance of passing. Regardless of the outcome, MassTLC will continue to push for a legislative replacement to the FCC rules. Meanwhile, net neutrality advocates will fight a prolonged battle against the FCC’s repeal in court.
