Congress starting from scratch on making new national media policy

Published: 2007-01-26

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The previous Congress never got to vote on a full-scale rewrite of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Some in the Republican-run House had hoped for a vote during the post-election lame-duck session, but the shift of power to the Democrats scuttled that possibility. Now, with Democrats in charge, what could a new telecommunications bill look like? There is the possibility of including language guaranteeing equal access to the Internet by content providers, a concept known as "net neutrality." Net neutrality -- short for network neutrality -- is the policy of keeping the Internet open to all lawful traffic by requiring that cable and telephone companies operate their Internet networks in a nondiscriminatory manner. It bars those companies from prioritizing Internet traffic to benefit their own content. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops came out last year in support of net neutrality. So did an estimated 1.5 million others who feared Internet service providers would charge Web sites extra to guarantee speedy access for users. With no safeguards for net neutrality, the USCCB and other church and community groups fear noncommercial religious and other speech on the Internet is threatened.

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