[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2136 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2136

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure internet openness, to 
 prohibit blocking of lawful content, applications, services, and non-
   harmful devices, to prohibit impairment or degradation of lawful 
internet traffic, to limit the authority of the Federal Communications 
 Commission and to preempt State law with respect to internet openness 
obligations, to provide that broadband internet access service shall be 
    considered to be an information service, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 8, 2019

 Mr. Smucker introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure internet openness, to 
 prohibit blocking of lawful content, applications, services, and non-
   harmful devices, to prohibit impairment or degradation of lawful 
internet traffic, to limit the authority of the Federal Communications 
 Commission and to preempt State law with respect to internet openness 
obligations, to provide that broadband internet access service shall be 
    considered to be an information service, 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 ``Open Internet Preservation Act''.

SEC. 2. INTERNET OPENNESS.

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

``SEC. 14. INTERNET OPENNESS.

    ``(a) Obligations of Broadband Internet Access Service Providers.--
A person engaged in the provision of broadband internet access service, 
insofar as such person is so engaged--
            ``(1) may not block lawful content, applications, services, 
        or non-harmful devices, subject to reasonable network 
        management; and
            ``(2) may not impair or degrade lawful internet traffic on 
        the basis of internet content, application, or service, or use 
        of a non-harmful device, subject to reasonable network 
        management.
    ``(b) Commission Authority.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Commission shall enforce the 
        obligations established in subsection (a) and the obligations 
        established in subsection (e)(2) through adjudication of 
        complaints alleging violations of such respective subsection 
        but may not, under any provision of law, whether by rulemaking 
        or otherwise--
                    ``(A) expand the internet openness obligations for 
                provision of broadband internet access service beyond 
                the obligations established in subsection (a); or
                    ``(B) expand the internet openness obligations for 
                the offering or provision of specialized services 
                beyond the obligations established in subsection 
                (e)(2).
            ``(2) Formal complaint procedures.--Not later than 60 days 
        after the date of the enactment of this section, the Commission 
        shall adopt formal complaint procedures to address alleged 
        violations of subsection (a) and alleged violations of 
        subsection (e)(2). Such procedures shall include a deadline 
        (relative to the date of filing of a complaint under such 
        procedures) for the disposition of such complaint.
    ``(c) Preemption of State Law.--No State or political subdivision 
of a State shall adopt, maintain, enforce, or impose or continue in 
effect any law, rule, regulation, duty, requirement, standard, or other 
provision having the force and effect of law relating to or with 
respect to internet openness obligations for provision of broadband 
internet access service.
    ``(d) Other Laws and Considerations.--Nothing in this section--
            ``(1) supersedes any obligation or authorization a provider 
        of broadband internet access service may have to address the 
        needs of emergency communications or law enforcement, public 
        safety, or national security authorities, consistent with or as 
        permitted by applicable law, or limits the provider's ability 
        to do so; or
            ``(2) prohibits reasonable efforts by a provider of 
        broadband internet access service to address copyright 
        infringement or other unlawful activity.
    ``(e) Specialized Services.--
            ``(1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), 
        nothing in this section shall be construed to limit the ability 
        of broadband internet access service providers to offer 
        specialized services.
            ``(2) Prohibition on certain practices.--Specialized 
        services may not be offered or provided in ways that threaten 
        the meaningful availability of broadband internet access 
        service or that have been devised or promoted in a manner 
        designed to evade the purposes of this section.
    ``(f) Broadband To Be Considered Information Service.--
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the provision of broadband 
internet access service or any other mass-market retail service 
providing advanced telecommunications capability (as defined in section 
706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (47 U.S.C. 1302)) shall be 
considered to be an information service.
    ``(g) Reasonable Network Management.--For purposes of subsection 
(a), a network management practice is reasonable if it is primarily 
used for and tailored to achieving a legitimate network management 
purpose, taking into account the particular network architecture and 
technology of the broadband internet access service.
    ``(h) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Broadband internet access service.--
                    ``(A) In general.--The term `broadband internet 
                access service' means a mass-market retail service by 
                wire or radio that provides the capability to transmit 
                data to and receive data from all or substantially all 
                internet endpoints, including any capabilities that are 
                incidental to and enable the operation of the 
                communications service, but excluding dial-up internet 
                access service.
                    ``(B) Functional equivalent; evasion.--Such term 
                includes any service that--
                            ``(i) the Commission finds to be providing 
                        a functional equivalent of the service 
                        described in subparagraph (A); or
                            ``(ii) is used to evade the obligations set 
                        forth in subsection (a).
            ``(2) Network management practice.--The term `network 
        management practice' means a practice that has a primarily 
        technical network management justification. Such term does not 
        include other business practices.
            ``(3) Specialized services.--The term `specialized 
        services' means services other than broadband internet access 
        service that are offered over the same network as, and that may 
        share network capacity with, broadband internet access 
        service.''.

SEC. 3. ELIGIBILITY OF BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS SERVICES FOR UNIVERSAL 
              SERVICE FUNDS.

    Section 254 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 254) is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (c), by adding at the end the following:
            ``(4) Broadband internet access services.--Broadband 
        internet access services (as defined in section 14) shall be 
        eligible to receive funding from Federal universal service 
        support mechanisms authorized by this section.''; and
            (2) in subsection (e)--
                    (A) in the first sentence, by inserting ``or a 
                provider of broadband internet access service (as 
                defined in section 14)'' after ``section 214(e)''; and
                    (B) in the second sentence, by inserting ``or 
                provider'' after ``carrier''.
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