This Senator just betrayed the entire Internet by introducing a bill to undermine net neutrality. Now we need to convince these 8 other Senators to help save it.
Senator Kennedy of Louisiana just betrayed his constituents, Louisiana small businesses, and millions of Internet users by introducing legislation that essentially outlaws net neutrality while claiming to save it. His bill is a companion to telecom shill Marsha Blackburn’s (R-TN) ridiculous “Open Internet Preservation Act.” (See bill text here.)
This bill is NOT net neutrality. It’s not even “weak” net neutrality, or a “compromise.” It’s a bill to kill net neutrality. It would:
- Legalize paid prioritization, opening the floodgates for ISPs to charge new fees and discriminate between online content
- Kneecap the FCC’s ability to prevent abuse from ISP monopolies, and
- Prevent states from enacting their own net neutrality rules (like the one Washington just passed.)
This is significant because Senator Kennedy had previously claimed he was considering supporting the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to overturn the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality, which provides the clearest path to restoring basic protections for Internet users and small businesses that never should have been taken away in the first place.
This is a pivotal moment in the net neutrality fight. It means that we need to unleash the force of the entire Internet on the remaining undecided Senators and tell them to support the CRA rather than selling out to the ISPs like Kennedy did.
These are the other Senators who are still likely to support the net neutrality CRA. Call and tweet at them right now and tell them to support the CRA to save net neutrality, rather than legislation that would permanently undermine it.
Senator Flake | @JeffFlake | 202–224–4521
Senator Heller | @SenDeanHeller | 202–224–6244
Senator Hatch | @OrrinHatch | (202) 224–5251
Senator Gardner | @SenCoryGardner | (202) 224–5941
Senator Portman | @SenRobPortman | 202–224–3353
Senator Rubio | @MarcoRubio | (202) 224–3041
Senator Murkowski | @LisaMurkowski | (202)-224–6665
Senator Graham | @LindseyGrahamSC | (202) 224–5972
Senator Kennedy told Politico that he’s still considering supporting the CRA in addition to this terrible legislation that he introduced. That’s a head scratcher. It’s worth calling him and telling him you’re outraged he would introduce such a bad bill. He should withdraw it and publicly support the CRA instead.
Here’s his number: (202) 224–4623 and his twitter handle: @SenJohnKennedy
If we can’t convince Kennedy, then we must get through to the Senators listed above. Call them, tweet them, drop in to their office, organize a protest, and make it clear that they MUST support the net neutrality CRA, or you won’t vote for them come election time.
