It’s happening in the Senate on Thursday and before we go any further, let me assure you that it means nothing substantive in the short term. The FCC’s network neutrality rules are slated to take effect on November 20th and congressional Republicans are not happy about them. The House has already voted to block implementation of the rules and 42 Senate Republicans have co-sponsored the resolution up for a vote tomorrow. It’s not clear whether the GOP can lure enough Democrats over to their side to get a majority. But even if they somehow did and the bill went to President Obama’s desk, he would veto it since net neutrality was one of his platform planks when he got elected in the first place. The Senate would then need a two-thirds majority to override the veto.
Still, beyond the theater of it all, you can read the tea leaves of what the Republicans would like to see happen at least after the next election.
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