{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.lee.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/speeches?ContentRecord_id=FF93C505-AFA3-4DF1-95EF-6097A56BDD31", "Net Neutrality Regulation Floor Speech", "2017-12-14", "2017", "2017-12", "Republican", "House", "UT", "Mike Lee", "L000577", "www.lee.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Mr. President,\r\nEarlier today the FCC voted to reverse a major impediment to a free and open Internet: The Title Two Internet regulations that were imposed under President Obama in 2015.\r\nThese regulations are commonly called \u201cNet Neutrality,\u201d so for the sake of convenience that is what I\u2019ll call them.\r\nI want to congratulate FCC Chairman Ajit Pai for this brave accomplishment. He has fought for what he knows is right in the face of tremendous pressure.\r\nI also want to use this opportunity to correct the record about what the FCC actually has accomplished.\r\nBecause there is an astonishing amount of misinformation and hyperbole surrounding this matter.\r\nIf you believe the passionate voices defending these regulations, then you may think the FCC just jeopardized the Internet that we all know and love\u2014and sometimes loathe.\r\nThese activists paint a scary vision of America without Net Neutrality.\r\n. . . A vision where large Internet Service Providers prey on ordinary consumers and startups.\r\n. . . Where Internet access would be rationed or bundled up in expensive packages.\r\n. . . One viral tweet even suggested that Google would start charging two bucks apiece for Internet searches!\r\nThese are falsehoods, and they will be exposed as such over the next few months, when the Internet hums along like usual and the skyscrapers in all our major cities remain standing.\r\nWe will look back on these dire predictions as hysterics, like Y2K or the Mayan Apocalypse of 2012.\r\nBut in the present, these exaggerations have real-world consequences besides scaring the public.\r\nIn the last six months, Chairman Pai and his family have been attacked in the grossest terms.\r\nEven his children have been singled out for intimidation.\r\nThese kinds of attacks have no place in our discourse.\r\nSo why don\u2019t we tone down the rhetoric and see if we can\u2019t get to the truth about Net Neutrality.\r\nWe can start with a little background.\r\nIn 2015, the Democrat-controlled FCC issued the so-called \u201cOpen Internet Order.\u201d\r\nThis order made dramatic changes to how the Internet was classified for purposes of regulation.\r\nUntil 2015, broadband Internet was classified as an \u201cinformation service.\u201d\r\nAs such, it was subject to \u201clight-touch\u201d regulations that allowed innovators to build without seeking permission from the government.\r\nThis classification was common sense and reflected the intent of Congress.\r\nThe Internet is a fast-moving information superhighway.\r\nIf slow-moving government regulators got involved decades ago, it could have inhibited innovation that keeps service fast and prices low for all Americans.\r\nNot only was this a common-sense arrangement, it facilitated a \u201cvirtual renaissance\u201d of innovation and discovery.\r\nThis renaissance gave us things like smartphones, ride-sharing, and super-fast fiber optic Internet. It gave us 3G . . . then 4G . . . and soon 5G wireless service!\r\nAnd yes, this period also gave us Twitter. So it wasn\u2019t all good.\r\nBut overall, the light-touch regulatory arrangement worked pretty well\u2014for ordinary users, big companies, and entrepreneurs just starting out in their garages.\r\nContrary to Net Neutrality\u2019s rabid defenders, the Internet of 2014 was not some sort of hellscape. It was actually pretty awesome.\r\nThe FCC threatened all that in 2015, when it reclassified broadband Internet as a \u201ctelecommunications service.\u201d\r\nThis innocuous-sounding change subjected the Internet to a host of regulations that were originally meant for New Deal-era telephone monopolies like Ma Bell.\r\nIn essence, the government imposed 1930s-style regulations on 21st-century technology.\r\nThis outdated arrangement has worked about as well as we would expect: Broadband Internet investment has fallen significantly since the Net Neutrality regulations were proposed in 2011.\r\nDr. George Ford of the Phoenix Center estimates that between 2011 and 2015, just the threat of regulation scared off $200 billion in investment.\r\nAnd since the regulations were imposed in 2015, broadband Internet investment has declined by 5.6% \u2014that\u2019s billions of lost dollars over just two years.\r\nAs Chairman Pai has noted, this is the first-ever decline in broadband investment outside of a recession. And this recession just so happens to be self-imposed!\r\nIt may not seem like a big deal to you that government is squeezing out billions in Internet investment. But it hurts you and your fellow citizens in material ways.\r\nLess investment means less fiber-optic cable . . . fewer towers and Wi-Fi hotspots.\r\nAnd this translates into spottier coverage and slower speeds for Americans\u2014especially those living on the periphery of society, in poverty or in rural areas.\r\nFCC regulations make it harder for these Americans to have equal access to the Internet.\r\nThese regulations also have entrenched the market power of large Internet Service Providers while hurting their smaller competitors.\r\nBy their very nature, regulations impose conformity on a market. They limit companies\u2019 ability to distinguish themselves from their rivals by offering innovative services.\r\nThis works out fine for the companies at the top. They\u2019ve already made it. They can kick back without worrying about some young punk coming along and changing the game.\r\nIt works out less well for the young punks\u2014the startups that want to win customers away from old-school companies.\r\nThat\u2019s how it works in theory, at least. And there\u2019s good evidence that\u2019s what is happening in practice.\r\nSmall ISPs have been far more critical of Net Neutrality regulations than large ISPs.\r\nA group of two-dozen small Internet providers recently wrote that the regulations hang \u201clike a black cloud\u201d over their businesses, \u201cslowing\u201d or even halting their deployment of new technology.\r\nLikewise, 19 municipal Internet providers told the FCC that they \u201coften delay or hold off\u201d on introducing new services because they cannot afford a potential complaint.\r\nInternet providers that serve predominantly rural areas have voiced similar concerns, reporting that they have reduced network expansion in parts of the country that are already underserved.\r\nThese examples show that Net Neutrality regulations are harming competition and increasing the consolidation of power in the Internet industry, not decreasing it.\r\nInternet regulations have in effect sheltered large ISPs from competition and from the need to change. Be sure to think about that the next time you\u2019re on hold with customer support.\r\nAs Americans chart a path forward in the coming years, we will face an important choice: Do we want an Internet run by regulators, or an Internet run by innovators?\r\nThe innovators have a strong track record over the last thirty years, so I know who I\u2019m siding with.\r\nHow can we empower them? And more importantly, how can we empower the millions of families who rely on fast and reliable Internet service each and every day?\r\nThe FCC did its part today by repealing Net Neutrality and returning to the regulatory framework that governed the Internet successfully until 2015.\r\nThis move reclassifies the Internet as an information service, but it goes beyond that as well.\r\nThe FCC will require every ISP to disclose information about their network management practices.\r\nIf these companies block or throttle Web traffic, rest assured the public will know about it.\r\nAnd importantly, this order restores enforcement power to the Federal Trade Commission to protect consumers from \u201cunfair or deceptive\u201d practices.\r\nThe FTC had policed the Internet successfully for years prior to 2015. Now the cop is back on the beat.\r\nThe FCC\u2019s action today is a return to normalcy for the Internet.\r\nBut we should not rest easy. A future administration could undo all Chairman Pai\u2019s hard work at a moment\u2019s notice, if Congress does not act to solidify his accomplishment.\r\nOver the summer, I introduced the Restoring Internet Freedom Act, which would prohibit the FCC from imposing utility-style regulations on the Internet ever again.\r\nPassing this act would give companies the regulatory certainty they need to invest in improvements for their customers.\r\nWe should not discount how important Congress can be in determining the success\u2014or failure\u2014of things like the Internet.\r\nIn 1996, President Clinton and Congress inaugurated the \u201clight-touch\u201d regulation of the Internet. They wanted the information superhighway to be \u201cunfettered by Federal or State regulations.\u201d\r\nThey were rewarded with a tremendous outpouring of innovation that has improved the lives of practically every American.\r\nI say we emulate their wise example, and see what free men and women can invent in the next twenty years.\r\nThank you.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.lee.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/speeches?ContentRecord_id=FF93C505-AFA3-4DF1-95EF-6097A56BDD31"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.7129271291196346, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}