[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5353 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5353

  To establish broadband policy and direct the Federal Communications 
  Commission to conduct a proceeding and public broadband summits to 
  assess competition, consumer protection, and consumer choice issues 
relating to broadband Internet access services, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 12, 2008

  Mr. Markey (for himself and Mr. Pickering) introduced the following 
    bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To establish broadband policy and direct the Federal Communications 
  Commission to conduct a proceeding and public broadband summits to 
  assess competition, consumer protection, and consumer choice issues 
relating to broadband Internet access services, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 
2008''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Internet has had profound benefits for numerous 
        aspects of daily life for millions of people throughout the 
        United States and is increasingly vital to the economy of the 
        United States.
            (2) The importance of the broadband marketplace to 
        citizens, communities, and commerce warrants a thorough inquiry 
        to obtain input and ideas for a variety of broadband policies 
        that will promote openness, competition, innovation, and 
        affordable, ubiquitous broadband service for all individuals in 
        the United States.

SEC. 3. BROADBAND POLICY.

    Title I of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et seq.) 
is amended by adding at the end the following new section:

``SEC. 12. BROADBAND POLICY.

    ``It is the policy of the United States--
            ``(1) to maintain the freedom to use for lawful purposes 
        broadband telecommunications networks, including the Internet, 
        without unreasonable interference from or discrimination by 
        network operators, as has been the policy and history of the 
        Internet and the basis of user expectations since its 
        inception;
            ``(2) to ensure that the Internet remains a vital force in 
        the United States economy, thereby enabling the Nation to 
        preserve its global leadership in online commerce and 
        technological innovation;
            ``(3) to preserve and promote the open and interconnected 
        nature of broadband networks that enable consumers to reach, 
        and service providers to offer, lawful content, applications, 
        and services of their choosing, using their selection of 
        devices, as long as such devices do not harm the network; and
            ``(4) to safeguard the open marketplace of ideas on the 
        Internet by adopting and enforcing baseline protections to 
        guard against unreasonable discriminatory favoritism for, or 
        degradation of, content by network operators based upon its 
        source, ownership, or destination on the Internet.''.

SEC. 4. INTERNET FREEDOM ASSESSMENT.

    (a) Internet Freedom Assessment Required.--
            (1) In general.--Within 90 days after the date of the 
        enactment of this Act, the Federal Communications Commission 
        (in this Act referred to as the ``Commission'') shall commence 
        a proceeding on broadband services and consumer rights.
            (2) Specific requirements.--As part of the proceeding under 
        this section, the Commission shall assess--
                    (A) whether broadband network providers adhere to 
                the Commission's Broadband Policy Statement of August, 
                2005 (FCC 05-151), including whether, consistent with 
                the needs of law enforcement, such providers refrain 
                from blocking, thwarting, or unreasonably interfering 
                with the ability of consumers to--
                            (i) access, use, send, receive, or offer 
                        lawful content, applications, or services over 
                        broadband networks, including the Internet;
                            (ii) use lawful applications and services 
                        of their choice; and
                            (iii) attach or connect their choice of 
                        legal devices to use in conjunction with their 
                        broadband telecommunications or information 
                        services, provided such devices do not harm the 
                        network;
                    (B) whether broadband network providers add charges 
                for quality of service, or other similar additional 
                fees or surcharges, to certain Internet applications 
                and service providers, and whether such pricing 
                conflicts with the policies of the United States stated 
                in section 12 of the Communications Act of 1934 (as 
                added by section 3 of this Act);
                    (C) whether broadband network providers offer to 
                consumers parental control protection tools, services 
                to combat unsolicited commercial electronic mail, and 
                other similar consumer services, the manner in which 
                such services are offered, and the extent to which such 
                services are consistent with such policies of the 
                United States;
                    (D) practices by which network providers manage or 
                prioritize network traffic, including prioritization 
                for emergency communications, and whether and in what 
                instances such practices may be consistent with such 
                policies of the United States;
                    (E) with respect to content, applications, and 
                services--
                            (i) the historic economic benefits of an 
                        open platform;
                            (ii) the relationship between competition 
                        in the broadband Internet access market and an 
                        open platform; and
                            (iii) the policy choices and results of 
                        global competitors with respect to access 
                        competition and an open platform;
                    (F) whether the need for enforceable rules 
                governing openness, consumer rights, and consumer 
                protections or prohibiting unreasonable discrimination 
                is lessened if a broadband network provider provides 
                significantly high bandwidth speeds to consumers; and
                    (G) the potential of policies promoting openness in 
                spectrum allocation, universal service programs, and 
                video franchising to expand innovation through 
                protection from unreasonable interference by network 
                owners of an open marketplace for speech and commerce 
                in content, applications, and services.
    (b) Public Broadband Summits Required.--
            (1) In general.--As part of the proceeding required under 
        subsection (a), and within 1 year after the date of the 
        enactment of this Act, the Commission shall conduct a minimum 
        of 8 public broadband summits, in geographically diverse 
        locations, around the United States. The Commission shall 
        publicly announce the time and location of each such summit at 
        least 30 days in advance.
            (2) Purpose of public broadband summits.--Such public 
        broadband summits shall seek to bring together, among others, 
        consumers, consumer advocates, small business owners, 
        corporations, venture capitalists, State and local governments, 
        academia, labor organizations, religious organizations, 
        representatives of higher education, primary and secondary 
        schools, public libraries, public safety, and the technology 
        sector to assess competition, consumer protection, and consumer 
        choice issues related to broadband Internet access services.
    (c) Internet Input.--As part of the proceeding required under 
subsection (a), the Commission shall seek to utilize broadband 
technology to encourage input from and communication with the people of 
the United States through the Internet in a manner that will maximize 
the ability of such people to participate in such proceeding.
    (d) Report to Congress.--Within 90 days after completing the 
summits under subsection (b), the Commission shall submit a report to 
Congress--
            (1) summarizing the results of the assessment under 
        subsection (a), including information gained from the public 
        summits under subsection (b); and
            (2) providing recommendations on how to promote 
        competition, safeguard free speech, and ensure robust consumer 
        protections and consumer choice relating to broadband Internet 
        access services.
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