[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.
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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 8, 2019
Mr. Smucker introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce
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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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