Doyle Talked to Republicans Who Privately Disagreed With Privacy CRA, He Says
House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., saw a difference between how some congressional Republicans talked publicly and privately about the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to kill FCC ISP privacy rules, recently signed into law, he said on…
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an episode of C-SPAN’s The Communicators, set to be televised this weekend and be online. “We talked to many Republicans who agreed privately that this certainly was not a good move for the party,” Doyle said, not naming anyone. A group of 15 Republicans voted against the CRA during its House vote, and no Democrats voted for it. Doyle said he expects a similar fight over the 2015 open internet order if Chairman Ajit Pai seeks to undo the order. “This isn’t something they can do with a CRA or they can rush through,” Doyle said. “I believe they will hear from literally millions of Americans who do not agree with the action the chairman is about to take.” On the matter of privacy, he said the FTC wouldn't be sufficient due to its lack of rulemaking authority. He didn’t see undoing the FCC rules as a matter of bringing parity to the telecom and tech companies on privacy, as some have argued. “You have choice,” he said of online privacy, arguing that a person who doesn’t like Google could use Bing. Many Americans have the choice of only one ISP, he said. Democrats want “strong consumer protections,” he stressed, talking about his interest in competition and what that means for the telecom industry. He isn’t pushing for any particular contender to become FCC commissioner, he said.