Manchin Undecided on Wicker/Sinema Net Neutrality Working Group; Schatz Skeptical
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told us Wednesday he hasn't decided whether to participate in the bipartisan net neutrality legislation working group launched by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., but “I'm happy to help…
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any way I can” to reach a compromise. Manchin is among the 46 Senate Democrats who back the Save the Internet Act (HR-1644/S-682). Sinema is the only Senate Democrat who hasn't backed the bill, which would add a new title to the Communications Act that says the FCC order rescinding its 2015 rules “shall have no force or effect.” HR-1644/S-682 would retroactively restore reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 1903060077). Wicker and Sinema announced the working group Tuesday (see 1903120078). Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, told us he doesn't see the working group as hurting S-682's already long odds of Senate passage. “Nobody had any illusions that [Wicker] was going to mark up” S-682 via Senate Commerce, Schatz said. “I'm always for people sitting down and negotiating, but count me as not that optimistic that we're going to be able to find a legislative solution” this Congress. “The Republicans' view is that they won” by gaining a majority on the FCC after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, so “the only way this is going to change is with a different FCC” composition, Schatz said.