House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is urging Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai not to repeal the agency’s net neutrality regulations, and urging him to hold a public hearing on the regulations in her tech-heavy district.
“San Francisco is home to many people building apps, web services and internet-connected devices used locally and around the world,” Pelosi wrote in letter last week that was released by her office on Monday.
“It’s also home to many internet users who would be impacted by the Commission’s proposal. It would be my pleasure to invite you and your colleagues to hold a Public Hearing in San Francisco to hear from my constituents on this important matter.”
{mosads}Pai has launched FCC proceedings to get rid of the legal framework for the 2015 net neutrality rules, which require internet service providers to treat all web traffic equally.
An FCC spokesman did not immediately respond when asked for comment.
Conservatives and the broadband industry argue that the rules harm internet providers by reclassifying them as telecommunications services, which they are now saying has hurt their infrastructure investments.
In her letter, Pelosi pointed to remarks that some of the major companies’ executives have made to their shareholders that appear to contradict that argument.
“No matter what their lawyers tell the FCC or their spokespeople tell reporters, when these companies speak to their shareholders, they are prohibited under federal securities laws from materially misstating facts,” she wrote. “I encourage you to read the nearly 50 pages of detailed excerpts from the voluminous statements broadband providers made on earnings calls and at investment conferences that Title II has had no impact on their investment decisions.”