[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 21]
[House]
[Page 27981]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     NET NEUTRALITY VS. FREE SPEECH

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the different ways we get our 
information in America have changed dramatically over the last few 
decades. We've gone from rabbit ears on our TV sets to cable satellite 
dishes and broadband. In the next decades, everything--radio, 
television, Internet, telephones--everything will use broadband.
  ``Net neutrality'' is a new legislative scheme cooked up by the 
government fairness police to ration broadband access. It's not about 
keeping the Internet ``neutral''--it's about government control. 
Anybody who's ever downloaded pictures over a slow Internet connection 
knows that some things use more Internet bandwidth than others. Under 
net neutrality, a plan disguised to make Internet access fair to 
everybody, the government actually rations how much bandwidth people 
can use. No one gets more than anyone else.
  If the fairness police control broadband, they limit the amount of 
information people receive and how they receive it. This is the newest 
threat to free speech in modern times. It's yet more government control 
over all communication and information.
  And that's just the way it is.

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