October 20, 2023
The FCC voted to adopt a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Communications Act. In the absence of an actual net neutrality problem, the FCC has manufactured new justifications for application of 1930s, utility-style regulation to broadband providers, including national security, cybersecurity, public safety, and consumer protection.
Ahead of the vote, we sent a letter to the House and Senate leadership of the Intelligence, Homeland Security and Armed Services Committees asking Congress to pay special attention to the FCC’s mission creep into the cybersecurity space, warning that it will lead to confusion and conflicts over which committee and agency has jurisdiction in specific cyber-related matters. We stressed the risk of creating legal and regulatory uncertainty, hampering effective national security oversight and cooperation, and making it harder to coordinate and implement a cohesive security strategy and respond quickly to emerging threats.