Op-Ed: Menendez Tilts Toward Net Neutrality

by: Timothy Karr

Sat Sep 09, 2006 at 09:22:55 AM EDT

The pending legislation does not include any meaningful provision to protect the principle of Network Neutrality online even though more than a million people have signed a petition sponsored by the SavetheInternet.com coalition asking Congress to preserve Internet freedom.

The grassroots movement for Net Neutrality drove home that point the week before Congress reconvened by holding petition drops at senators' offices in 26 cities around the country.

Net Neutrality advocates worry that Internet providers will fast-track content from favored Web sites or companies, while slowing down transmissions from everybody else. To stop companies like AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner and Comcast from abusing our online freedoms, we need to restore the federal law that ensures that we are free to navigate the Web to the sites and service of our choice, and not be pushed to companies favored by these Internet giants.

In Newark, New Jersey activists delivered tens of thousands of petitions to the Senate offices of Robert Menendez calling on the senator to "preserve a free and open Internet by stopping the phone company plan to erect new tollbooths and discriminate against content on the Web." 

August's nationwide petition delivery convinced at least four senators to go on record in support of net Neutrality, bringing the number of senators in favor of Internet freedom up to 26 as of September 7. Fourteen senators are on the record as backing major phone and cable companies' plans to create a tiered and discriminatory Internet. The rest are either waffling or undeclared on the issue.

These numbers are important, especially for New Jersey.

Pre-election jitters have stalled this issue even further with incumbents not wanting to turn voters away should they be portrayed in the media as foes of Internet freedom.

Making matters more complex is Sen. Ron Wyden's (D-Oregon) move to put a hold on Stevens bill -- a maneuver that effectively requires 60 Senate votes to lift.

It now stands to reason that Senate leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) isn't going to let the legislation go to the floor unless he's confident that he has the votes in the bag.

The magic number for Net Neutrality supporters is 41 -- enough supporting senators to discourage Senator Frist, and put Stevens' bill on layaway until better language is added to ensure Internet freedom.

Senator Menendez remains in the "waffling" camp although he recently hinted at support for Net Neutrality during an on August 15 campaign stop. But hinting isn't good enough to stop phone companies from ramming Stevens' bad legislation to the floor.

Still, Menendez, in a letter to SavetheInternet.com activists, indicates that he's hedging bets.  "The Internet is a vehicle of information and opportunity not only in the United States but around the globe," the senator wrote on August 30. "I appreciate and share your dedication to maintaining unfettered access to the Internet."

This noncommittal commitment is typical of senators who are holding back a public decision on Stevens' telecommunications bill. The political power of the largest phone and cable companies – expressed in the form of campaign contributions to incumbents – have compelled many who are up for re-election this season to stay on the fence.

But this issue is far too important for political gamesmanship.

Net neutrality is not cumbersome government interference into the dynamic and democratic world of the Internet. It is sound public policy that protects all users from Internet companies that seek to exploit their control of connections for financial gain. For this reason, every major consumer advocacy and public interest group – from the Consumers Union to the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group, from Common Cause to Free Press – supports meaningful Net Neutrality legislation.

This is bolstered by the more than a million Americans who have taken action to contact Congress in support of Internet freedom.

It's time Congress got ahead of the public and protected Net Neutrality before phone and cable companies take over.

Senator Menendez would do well to stand with New Jersey and fully announce his support for Net Neutrality.

-- Timothy Karr is the campaign director of Free Press, the media reform and public policy organization. He also manages the SavetheInternet.com coalition, a grassroots alliance of more than 750 organizations, businesses and bloggers that have banded together to protect Internet freedom. Karr lives in Hoboken.