Dorgan: FCC should act ‘now’ on reclassification

“While I appreciate all the work that has been done in the House on net neutrality, I continue to believe that the best way to preserve the free and open Internet is for the FCC to act now to reclassify broadband under Title II,” Dorgan said in a statement. 

“All of us who believe in an Internet without gatekeepers or tollbooths should be calling on [FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski] to reclassify broadband in a manner that re-imposes the nondiscrimination rules on the large internet providers,” he said. 

While Dorgan said the FCC should act “now,” Waxman had said he is willing to resume his legislative effort after the election when “cooler heads may prevail” and it might be less difficult to get Republicans on board. The House effort devolved after Republicans failed to back a draft bill. 

But observers say passing a bill in the lame-duck session, with little time and much on the Democrats’ agenda, is a long shot. 

Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said as much to Tech Daily Dose on Wednesday. 

“I think it will be almost impossible to get anything done on that,” he said on the prospect of a net-neutrality bill clearing Congress this year.  

Dorgan, a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, has his own experience with the challenges of ushering net-neutrality rules through Congress after working earlier on legislation with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).

Phone and cable companies see FCC action as a nuclear option and prefer a legislative fix to stave off that possibility.

Reclassification by the FCC would place their broadband business under certain telephone regulations, which they see as onerous.