12.13.17

Ahead of Tomorrow’s FCC Vote, Cantwell Defends Net Neutrality

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) took to the Senate floor to defend net neutrality and urge the Federal Communications (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai to halt his efforts to roll back protections for an open and free internet. The FCC is expected to vote along party lines in favor of Chairman Pai’s efforts to end net neutrality, which will allows cable companies and service providers to block, throttle, or prioritize content.

Here is an excerpt from Senator Cantwell’s remarks.

“The FCC has had rules that prevented companies from throttling or blocking, and those rules have paved the way to many great successes. We have in the United States Fortune 500 companies and a tech industry that is responsible for 7% of our nation's GDP and 6.9 million jobs in the United States of America. Why would you change the rules now? …13% of Washington state's economy depends on a healthy internet sector. The internet economy for our state supports 250,000 jobs and…these tech jobs have been a bedrock for the middle class. Chairman Pai is clearly not focused on the 13,000 tech companies in the state of Washington, the 250,000 jobs, and the 13% of our state's economy.”

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