Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Ms. HASSAN. Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues in support of reinstating net neutrality.

Access to a free and open internet is critical to promoting innovation, supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses, and growing our economy. Americans are accustomed to and want an internet that is consumer-friendly and that ensures equal access to content, no matter their internet service provider. Net neutrality helps ensure that the internet remains free and open by requiring internet service providers to treat all content the same way, providing equal access to applications and content online.

My constituents in New Hampshire are keenly aware of how important net neutrality is to their lives. Thousands of Granite Staters have called my office throughout the last year to voice support and urge Congress to protect it.

Unfortunately, last December the Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission, led by Chairman Ajit Pai, repealed net neutrality protections--a harmful decision that has a variety of consequences. By repealing these protections, the FCC has taken away from consumers and small business owners the ability to control their own internet experience and turned that control over to their internet service providers. This directly impacts our small businesses and could threaten the ability of entrepreneurs to get their businesses off the ground.

Without net neutrality, internet service providers will be allowed to force businesses and consumers to pay to play online. While larger more established companies would be able to compete, new small businesses and entrepreneurs might not be able to afford such fees, harming their ability to boost their business and reach more potential customers. This could particularly impact those in rural communities. Last year, several members of the rural and agricultural business community in New England wrote to the FCC to say: ``Repealing net neutrality will have a crippling effect on rural economies, further restricting access to the internet for rural businesses at a point in time where we need to expand and speed up this access instead.''

This would also impact consumers by giving internet service providers the power to discriminate against certain web pages, apps, and streaming and video services, by slowing them down, blocking them, or favoring certain services while charging consumers more for other services.

Often consumers would have little option for recourse since we are at a time when many Americans only have, at most, one or two options for broadband providers, leaving them stuck with a provider that is using unfair practices.

This could also affect the ability of countless people to organize and civically engage online. An open internet serves as a platform to elevate and empower voices that have been underrepresented in traditional media. We have seen grassroots movements, like the national Women's March, organized largely through online activism on the free and open internet. Efforts like these are critical to our democracy, which is why we need to protect the open internet as a mechanism for civic engagement.

Given how critical net neutrality is to the lives of countless Granite Staters and Americans and to the strength of our economy, we cannot stop fighting to reinstate a free and open internet.

I am proud to join a bipartisan group of colleagues to show our support for net neutrality and to introduce a Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn the FCC's partisan decision. As we head toward considering this measure, we are just one vote away from passing it. So I urge my Republican colleagues to put consumers first, to help small businesses and entrepreneurs innovate and thrive, and to benefit our economy. With just one more vote, we can move forward with restoring net neutrality and protecting an open internet.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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