Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Bryon Dorgan (D-N.D.) are circulating draft legislation on network neutrality.
The two lawmakers serve on the Commerce Committee, which is a few weeks away from voting on a broad telecommunications bill.
Among other things, the Snowe-Dorgan bill would ban Internet-service providers -- including cable and phone companies -- from blocking or degrading lawful content and from discriminating against unaffiliated content providers.
The Federal Communications Commission would have authority to prescribe rules. The agency would have to act on a complaint within 90 days or the complaint would be deemed granted.
Cable and phone companies argued that net-neutrality rules are unnecessary and that it is unwise for the government to regulate the Internet.
