WASHINGTON — The House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology  on Thursday passed legislation introduced by Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois) that aims to limit the Federal Communications Commission’s ability to protect Internet users from abuses by broadband access companies like Comcast.

On its surface, the “No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act” seems to accomplish what the FCC has already pledged to do: withhold from setting broadband rates by forbearing from some provisions in Title II of the Communications Act. However, Kinzinger’s bill would go much further and undermine protections against a wide range of unfair practices and hidden penalties imposed by phone and cable companies. The majority rejected efforts from Reps. Anna Eshoo and Doris Matsui (both D-California) to amend the bill and limit its overreach.

Free Press Action Fund Policy Director Matt Wood made the following statement:

“Representative Kinzinger’s legislation claims to accomplish one thing but actually does something else. In reality, this bill would prevent the FCC from reviewing entire categories of unfair practices, monopoly abuses, double-charging schemes and threats to Net Neutrality. That’s why this measure would cause serious harm to users of the free and open Internet.

“This bill is completely unnecessary. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has testified before this same subcommittee that he doesn’t plan to set broadband rates. It’s an issue lawmakers from both sides of the aisle say they agree on: Market forces are generally better at determining the rates Internet users pay for access.

“But there are meaningful differences between the rate-setting power Congress granted the FCC in the laws on the books today and the consumer-protection authority the newly proposed bill endangers. Finding a harmful practice to be unreasonable, or banning it straight out, is a far different proposition from the FCC attempting to determine and set the prices that broadband providers’ retail customers pay for service every month.

“Refusing to permit the sale of an unsafe good or service isn’t rate regulation. It’s just an agency doing its job to protect consumers and promote competition. Congress should shelve this bill and let the FCC do its job.”

To learn more, read Matt Wood’s Op-Ed in Bloomberg BNA: http://www.bna.com/truth-behind-doublespeak-n57982067210/