SCHUMER: FCC VOTE TO END NET NEUTRALITY – ALLOWING ACCESS TO THE WEB TO BE BLOCKED OR SLOWED FOR MILLIONS OF AMERICANS -- SIMPLY CANNOT STAND; REPEAL OF NET NEUTRALITY WILL TURN INTERNET INTO A TOLL ROAD, WHERE ONLY THE HIGHEST PAYING CUSTOMERS WILL RULE; SENATOR PUSHES PLAN TO OVERTURN DECISION WITH A MAJORITY VOTE BY CONGRESS

Yesterday’s Vote By The FCC To Repeal Net Neutrality Could Jack Up The Cost Of  Internet Access & Means The Internet Is No Longer Open Or Fair

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) Will Now Be Allowed To Deliberately Speed Up Or Slow Down Traffic From Specific Websites, Apps, Or Charge More For Different Content 

Schumer: We Must Hit ‘Control, Alt, Delete’ On FCC’s Vote To Kill The Open Internet

Standing at WeWork headquarters, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today announced support for a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would undo the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) disastrous repeal of Net Neutrality rules. Just yesterday the FCC voted to rescind the 2015 Open Internet Order, which prohibits internet service providers from blocking or slowing down internet traffic. Schumer today blasted the FCC’s decision and said it could bring an end to the free and open internet that has enabled innovation on the internet and allowed startup companies, like the ones hosted at WeWork, to flourish and create countless jobs.

Schumer was joined by Dennis Crowley, FourSquare CEO; Brian O’Kelley, AppNexus CEO; Julie Samuels, Tech: NYC Executive Director; and Erik Grimmelman, President of NY Tech Alliance.

“With the disastrous repeal of Net Neutrality rules, the Internet may start to resemble a toll road, with the highest bidders cruising along private ‘fast lanes’ while the rest of us inch along a single, traffic-choked public lane; and we could be forced to purchase internet packages much like cable packages, paying more for popular sites,” said U.S. Senator Charles Schumer. “We must keep the internet free and open to everyone: from the students writing their theses to the consumers purchasing their holiday gifts to the grandparents talking to their family over skype all the way to the startup company operating out of its founder’s basement. The resolution I am announcing today would press ‘control, alt, delete’ on the FCC’s recent vote and restore Net Neutrality once again.”

The CRA resolution, which Schumer plans to support, would rescind FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s order and fully restore the Open Internet Order. CRA resolutions allow Congress to overturn regulatory actions at federal agencies with a simple majority vote in both chambers.  In accordance with the Congressional Review Act, the resolution be will be formally introduced once the rule is submitted to both houses of Congress and published in the federal register.

Other Senators co-sponsoring the CRA resolution include Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii.), Richard Blumenthal (D–Conn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) Congressman Mike Doyle (D-Penn.) plans to introduce a CRA resolution in the House of Representatives.