Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2015 -- Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. Madam President, a battle has been raging online in the
past year. Millions of citizens, companies, innovators, and
entrepreneurs have been sounding an alarm calling us to electronic
arms. These 21st-century Netizens took to the street and they took to
the Net. They raised their voices and demanded that the FCC protect the
world's greatest platform for communications and commerce.

Today we declare victory. Today we say the economy and the free
expression of ideas depend on Net neutrality. Today we say an open and
free Internet is as important as keeping our air and water clean and
our roads and highways safe. Today we say Net neutrality is here to
stay. Today is Internet freedom and innovation day.

Just today the Federal Communications Commission is making historic
decisions to enshrine Net neutrality protections. The Commission is
voting to use its power to protect the tremendous power of the
Internet. This battle for Net neutrality means that the Internet is
protected for decades to come. It is protected for all the students and
startups, for all the businesses and online buyers, for all of the
inventors, the innovators, and the Internet users.

By banning paid prioritization, blocking, and throttling, the FCC is
applying the principles of nondiscrimination--which is what Net
neutrality really is--nondiscrimination to the broadband world. This is the next chapter in the history of American innovation. It is our country's declaration of innovation. Chairman Wheeler and the FCC are on the right side of history.

This battle for Net neutrality was not fought without opposition. The
deep-pocketed broadband barons want to turn the Internet into a set of
gated communities. They say it will raise taxes. They say it is an
overreach. They say it will not stand up in court. Some claim it will
harm investment. But then companies such as Sprint and Verizon say it
will not, in fact, influence how they invest. So I say to the critics:
Do you want to return to the days when a few telecommunications
giants--which today we would call big broadband barons--control the
vital wires and spectrum we use to communicate or do we want a free,
dynamic, open market where the best in ideas survives and thrives? The
choice is clear.

The FCC Commissioners supporting the open Internet order have made
the right choice. Today the people won. I applaud the FCC and Chairman
Wheeler for standing up for students in their dorm rooms, engineers in
their basements, and innovators in their garages. I applaud the FCC for
standing up for the best ideas, not merely the best funded ideas. The
FCC has chosen the right path forward. I commend the Commission for
that action.

Reclassifying broadband under title II is a major victory for
consumers, for our democracy, and for our economy. Consider that in
2013, 62 percent of the venture capital funds invested in this country
went toward Internet-specific and software companies. The free flow of
ideas supported by the Internet are creating the companies launching
the global revolution and supporting the communications that we rely on
every day. We want a free, dynamic, open market where the best in ideas
survives and thrives.

Today is a historic, revolutionary day for consumers, innovators,
entrepreneurs--anyone who counts on the Internet to connect to the
world. I applaud and I thank the millions of American revolutionaries
who stood up and fought for Net neutrality. The fight is not over.
There is much more work to be done. But today is a historic victory. It
is Internet freedom and innovation day.

Let's celebrate this transformative power of the Internet today and
for generations to come. We are going to ensure that the architecture
of the Internet remains one where the smallest entrepreneurs who can go
to the capital markets and raise the funding for the new ideas, for the
follow-on ideas to Google and eBay and Amazon and Hulu and YouTube, are
able to be joined by new companies like Dwolla, like Etsy, like Vimeo,
and like hundreds and thousands of others whose names we do not yet
know, because now they are going to have the capacity to be able to say
to their investors: We now have the capacity to reach a market. With
our ideas, we can transform some part of the way in which people
communicate in this country and on this planet.

That is what we are celebrating today--the power of the Net, the
power of individuals to come up with the capital so they can then
transform some part of the way in which we communicate in this life.

So just remember that when the 1996 Telecommunications Act passed,
there were no companies like the ones I just mentioned. That was
because it was an old world. But in the blink of an eye, a
technological eye, we have moved to this new world where each of us is
carrying a device in our pockets. Each of us is wondering how we ever
got along without the capacity to be able to tap into all of these
wonderful new companies and the products they provide. That is what
today is all about--Net neutrality day. It will not impact the
investments of the big companies, but it will ensure that the small
companies--those that received 62 percent of all venture capital in
America in the last year--will be able to provide their new products,
their new innovations, their new challenges to the way in which we
communicate. I think that is the whole key. We need to maintain the
Darwinian paranoia-inducing competition that the Net has introduced. If
we do that, then I think America will be No. 1, looking over its
shoulder at Nos. 2, 3, and 4 in the world in terms of our innovation in
the communications sector.

Congratulations to the Federal Communications Commission, and
congratulations to all entrepreneurs across America. Today is a day
when you should be celebrating.

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