Obama Threatens to Veto Anti-Net Neutrality Resolution
Senate vote expected Thursday
The White House said Tuesday that President Obama would likely bring out his veto pen if Congress passes a resolution of disapproval that would overturn the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules. The Senate is expected to vote on the resolution, which the House passed in April, on Thursday.
The resolution, which is being championed by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Tex., is not subject to the filibuster and so doesn't need to reach the Senate's de facto 60 vote threshold. If it manages to get 51 votes, which would require nine Democrats to cross the aisle, it would go to the president. But it would take a two-thirds vote to override a veto.
Open Internet rules have been a major part of the Administration's Internet and broadband strategy. "It would be ill-advised to threaten the very foundations of innovation in the Internet economy and the democratic spirit that has made the Internet a force for social progress around the world," the White House said in a release Tuesday. "If the president is presented with S.J. Res 6, which would not safeguard the free and open Internet, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the resolution."
The FCC's rules, which prohibit Internet providers from blocking or slowing down legal content on the Internet, are scheduled to go into effect Nov. 20.
With the veto threat, it appears that the best chance for net neutrality opponents will be in court. A challenge to the rules filed by Verizon will be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
