Today I received an email from Congresswoman Heather Wilson regarding her stance on Net Neutrality.  Her votes in favor of Net Neutrality are a clear indication of her position, but her email spells it out in greater detail:

On April 26, 2006 , the House Energy and Commerce Committee, of which I am a member, considered the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006. It passed the committee by a vote of 42-12. I was the only Republican member of the committee to vote against final passage of this legislation during the full committee mark up. In the near future, the U.S. House of Representatives will consider this piece legislation on the floor.

In general, the legislation would allow telephone companies to enter the video market by creating a national approval process known as a national franchise for telephone carriers and cable providers that offer cable service. The legislation approved by the subcommittee would improve competition between Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), an internet based telephone service, and local telephone services. There is language in the bill that would require cable and telephone companies to offer broadband service without requiring the consumer to purchase any other services they offer. It takes additional steps to ensure that networks are not used to transmit child pornography.

Network neutrality ensures that broadband providers do not discriminate against internet traffic. More specifically, network neutrality ensures that broadband providers do not discriminate against internet traffic from websites that compete with their own websites or charge extra money to allow people to access particular sites.

The legislation lets the Federal Communications Commission adjudicate instances of anti-competitive action over the internet and enforces the Federal Communication Commissions broadband policy statement. The broadband policy statement, which was adopted in August of 2005, says that companies may not stop consumers from accessing Internet content, using software of their choice, and attaching non-harmful devices to networks. The legislation also requires the FCC to resolve disputes within 90 days and allows fines of up to $500,000 per violation of the neutrality principles.

I supported an amendment during the full committee mark up that would have strengthened the network neutrality provisions in the bill. The amendment, offered by Congressman Markey, would have imposed non-discriminatory requirements on broadband network providers with respect to the delivery of content, applications, and services over the internet. Although it failed by a vote of 22-34. During the subcommittee committee mark up on this legislation, I also supported the same amendment offered by Congressman Markey that would have also strengthened the network neutrality provisions in the bill. It failed by a vote of 8-23.

I believe that the internet should remain open to search and visit websites without any restrictions or additional fees charged by providers. The proposed legislation has language that addresses network neutrality, although I think it needs to be even stronger than it is.

I will continue to work with my colleagues to better the network neutrality provisions to ensure that we produce an overall good piece of legislation. A lot of work remains with this piece of legislation, much to be done by the Congress.