House Net Neutrality amendment defeated on floor – COPE Act moves forward
One of the reasons I started this blog was because I felt the federal Net Neutrality legislation faces an uphill battle in the face of the Telcos deep pockets and huge lobbying machine. Taking a local grass roots stand for Net Neutrality is the best way to raise this issue, not by working from the top down in Congress, the telcos natural home turf. Well, late last night the Markey Net Neutrality amendment was defeated on the House floor by a vote of 152 to 269.
The full COPE Act passed with a vote of 321 to 101. The COPE Act is a sweeping telecommunications bill and is of import to us here in Red Bank because it further removes the regulations that require Verizon to negotiate with communities such as our for what is in the best interest of our town. The COPE Act would supersede our own recent state legislation and allow for national cable TV franchises.
What does all of this legislation mean for our efforts? From my point of view it doesn’t change the aim of this blog which is to get Red Bank officials to question Verizon on three key issues. Verizon still wants to use our town as a role model and will continue to push forward within the current regulations while state and federal legislation is getting singed into law.
This does make my efforts to get Gov. Corzine to involve Net Neutrality into the New Jersey state franchise legislation discussion all the more urgent. Gov. Corzine should use this opportunity to show Verzion how important we consider protecting the future of the internet. The new federal cable franchise legislation will trump our own state legislation, by questioning Verizon on Net Neutrality and declining to sign our franchise legislation into law will send a loud signal to Verizon.