Net Neutrality - Blog post #2

In the ongoing debate of net neutrality, the people representing me on a federal level are the House Representative for the 1st district of Pennsylvania, and the Senators of Pennsylvania. These elected officials are as follows: Robert Brady is my Representative, and Robert Casey Jr. and Patrick Toomey are Pennsylvania's Senators.

Robert Brady has served seven terms, and is currently serving his eighth term as the Representative of Pennslyvania's first Congressional district. Robert Brady has consistently earned high marks ("A" or 100 percent, depending on the grading system) from every national human rights organization that scores Congress. Robert Brady is a huge advocate for improving the quality of life for financially disadvantaged people, as well as the well being of veterans. In addition, he voted no on H J Res 37, a bill intended to stop the FCC from enforcing rules that would keep the internet a free place, which supports my cause.

Robert Casey Jr has been a Pennsylvania senator since 2007. He's very interested in the U.S job market. He's made many pushes to give tax breaks to small companies, and eliminate tax incentives for large companies to send U.S jobs overseas. He is also a huge supporter of future generations, and is an avid advocate for child education and child care. He voted yes on S Amdt 3907, an amendment to a bill that prevented telecommunication providers from performing surveillance on their consumers through the services they provided. This is another key point in net neutrality, that internet service providers cannot do anything with the information sent through their service unless it violates a law/terms of service.

Lastly, Patrick Toomey, even though he was elected to the first Congressional district of Pennsylvania just this year, he had previously served the fifteenth Congressional district of Pennsylvania from 1999 to 2004. He is very interested in improving the economy, and as such serves on many boards and committees regarding the economy. He voted yes on H.R.3709, a bill that prevents local and state governments from taxing internet access for another five years. Even if it's not the most related bill to net neutrality, it does illustrate some interest in maintaining internet accessibility, one of the founding principles of net neutrality.

Although it seems that net neutrality is on the back burner of legislation, based on these voting records, I think it's fair to say that they would all be in support of net neutrality, or at the very least neutral.

Comments (1)

William Marsh (Student 2012)
William Marsh

For some reason the comment box is all messed up, and has cut off a significant portion of my post. The remainder of my post is below:

from taxing internet access for another five years. Even if it's not the most related bill to net neutrality, it does illustrate some interest in maintaining internet accessibility, one of the founding principles of net neutrality.

Although it seems that net neutrality is on the back burner of legislation, based on these voting records, I think it's fair to say that they would all be in support of net neutrality, or at the very least neutral.