The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing April 20 on federal rulemaking and the "administrative state."
Among the topics being addressed is the FCC's network neutrality rulemaking, which Republicans have been highly critical of, including the perceived pressure from the Obama Administration to reclassify ISPs under Title II common carrier regs.
Witnesses at the hearings will be:
Jonathan Turley, professor of public interest law at George Washington University; Randolph May, president of the Free State Foundation; Bradford Campbell, counsel, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP; William Kovacs, senior VP, technology & regulatory affairs, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; and Robert Weissman, president, Public Citizen.
“As part of the hearing examining the administrative state and federal rulemaking, I’ve been asked by the Committee to focus on the FCC’s net neutrality rule," May told B&C, "which is what my testimony does. The testimony focuses on four areas, including the rule’s adverse economic impact and President Obama’s involvement, in which the FCC’s regulations and the agency’s rulemaking process are especially problematic from both a communications law and administrative law perspective. I’m glad the Committee recognized that the FCC’s and President’s actions regarding the net neutrality rulemaking are worth examining.”
Elsewhere on the network neutrality front, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit released a trio of decisions Tuesday, but still no sign of a decision on ISPs' challenge to the Open Internet order, which was argued Dec. 7.
