By Jim Puzzanghera | Los Angeles Times | February 10, 2015
A Republican on the Federal Communications Commission blasted the netneutrality
proposal from the agency's chairman as a "secret plan to regulate the Internet" that
"opens the door to billions of dollars in new taxes" on broadband services.
Commissioner Ajit Pai said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, a Democrat, was misleading the public
about what's in the plan. At a Tuesday news conference, Pai held up a copy of the thick draft
proposal and called on Wheeler to make it public before the agency votes on it on Feb. 26.
"I believe the public has a right to know what its government is doing, particularly when it comes
to something as important as Internet regulation," said Pai, an ardent opponent of net neutrality
regulations.
"I have studied the 332page plan in detail, and it is worse than I imagined," he said.
The FCC typically does not release draft orders until after they are approved by the commission.
Wheeler has the authority to do so but FCC spokeswoman Kim Hart said he will not break with
"longstanding FCC practice."
Wheeler's proposal would impose tough new federal oversight of online traffic to ensure Internet
providers don't give preference to video and other content from some websites over others.
The plan would put wired and wireless broadband service providers in the same legal category as
highly regulated telephone companies, although Wheeler said the FCC would take a lighttouch
approach that would not include rate regulation.
