Net Neutrality is True Target of GOP Obstruction Over FCC Nominees

Art Brodsky is a retired telecommunications policy professional. Shutterstock This fall, Senate Republicans will unleash the latest stage of their proxy war against one of the most pro-business regulations ever enacted. The proxy targets are two Democratic nominees for the Federal Communications Commission – Geoffrey Starks, an incumbent, and Anna Gomez, who, if confirmed, would give the Commission a 3-2 Democratic majority. The pro-business regulation? It’s known by the unwieldy name of Net Neutrality. Republicans don’t want the FCC to be at full strength with the addition of the fifth commissioner because their ideological myopia blinds them to the value of a policy they should wholeheartedly support. The concept behind Net Neutrality is alarmingly simple: the telephone and cable companies can’t play favorites among their business customers or, to put it more bluntly, aren’t allowed to be paid to play favorites among customers.  An illustration: Let’s say some years ago I wanted to call my local hardware store. However, instead of being connected to that store, imagine that I was connected to the hardware department in a local Sears department store. Imagine this happened because Sears paid the telephone company to reroute the call.   In this example, who wins and who loses? The phone company wins because it gets more money. But every small business that has calls redirected would be a loser, both in revenue and customers.  In the parlance of the times, those who let their “fingers do the walking” would find themselves in a place they didn’t…Net Neutrality is True Target of GOP Obstruction Over FCC Nominees