WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, the ranking Democrat on the House Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee, made the following statement regarding the defeat of the Markey-Eshoo-Boucher-Inslee “Net Neutrality Amendment” during consideration of the Telecommunications bill on the House floor Thursday night:

“When we began this struggle to prevent the telephone companies from imposing a new deep-pocket paradigm on the Internet, few understood what was at stake.  We are making progress, and although we did not prevail tonight, we intend to prevail in the end.  

“The Internet community is now aroused, and as the telephone and cable companies continue to use their political clout to turn the Internet from a democratic Field of Dreams to an exclusive set of Gated Communities, the looming danger to the Internet is becoming more obvious to everyone. I will continue to fight for an open and non-discriminatory Internet because the future of our country depends on it, literally, in that the jobs of tomorrow will depend on every inventor, innovator and dreamer finding an on-ramp onto the Internet superhighway.

“Net Neutrality is as basic to the function of the Internet as non-discrimination is to the U.S. Constitution.  I thank all those in the Internet community who helped raise this issue up to the point where it has become a flash point on a telecommunications bill.  We will win because we must.”

For a copy of the Amendment click: MARKEY_Neutrality_Amendment.pdf

For Immediate Release
June 9, 2006


 
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