WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate, Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chairman of the subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet, issued the following statements on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling handed down today on the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Title II Open Internet Order

“Today’s 2-1 court ruling upholding the FCC’s partisan decision to saddle the internet with restrictions designed for the monopoly telephone era says more about our outdated telecommunications laws than anything else,” said Thune. “Rather than providing internet users and companies alike with the regulatory certainty they need to thrive, we instead now have a highly political agency micromanaging the internet ecosystem. Today’s decision is a clear signal that my colleagues and I need to reestablish Congress’ appropriate role in setting communications policy on a bipartisan basis. As Judge Williams warns in his dissent, by ‘shunt[ing] broadband service onto the legal track suited to natural monopolies,’ the FCC’s order may actually foster ‘the prevalence of incurable monopoly.’ Congress must not allow that to happen.” 

“The Court’s ruling does not change the fact that the so-called ‘Open Internet’ rules are unnecessary and costly,” said Wicker. “Applying decades-old Title II regulations to modern technologies adds uncertainty to the marketplace and stifles innovation. I am hopeful that the decision will be appealed and overturned.” 

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