[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19546]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    RESTORING INTERNET FREEDOM ORDER

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on the issue of FCC Chairman 
Pai's Restoring Internet Freedom Order.
  The narrative out there is that this decision by the FCC will destroy 
the internet as we know it. I am here to say that simply is not true. 
The internet was free and open before the Obama administration 
implemented heavy-handed regulations in 2015, and it will continue to 
be free and open after these confusing regulations are repealed.
  Chairman Pai's plan would simply roll back these regulations that 
stifle innovation and broadband investment. There are over 4,000 
internet providers in this Nation. Do we want more to join or not?
  From 1996 to 2015, a light-touch regulatory approach to the internet 
preserved the free market and private investment soared to the tune of 
$1.5 trillion. This created the communications infrastructure we have 
in the United States today and opened the door for entrepreneurs to 
make America's internet economy the best in the world, not by using 
1934 regulations that probably regulated telegraphs.
  This decision will not take away anyone's privacy or hinder their 
access to the internet. Instead, it will stop the confusion between two 
governing bodies: the FCC trying to get in on the action of the Federal 
Trade Commission, which has always governed internet privacy.
  This levels the playing field and keeps competition, instead of the 
censorship we are seeing on the internet by very few providers. I think 
this opens the door back up for these wrong-headed regulations of 2015, 
and gives us all more choices.

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