Among the myriad missteps and abuses of the Obama Administration, its habit of rogue lawmaking through unelected administrative agencies rather than the deliberative democratic process was perhaps the worst. Even the most liberal Supreme Court justices on several occasions agreed, striking down Obama Administration regulatory impositions by unanimous votes.
And perhaps no federal agency represented that lawlessness and impropriety better than the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Last year as the clock began to expire on the Obama era, the FCC moved to impose new “privacy” regulations upon private Internet Service Providers (ISPs), upon which Americans rely to access the internet. Those regulations actually did nothing on behalf of consumer privacy, or to prevent online data collection practices used profusely by other entities throughout the Internet economy that the Obama Administration favored. Instead, the regulations served to constrict development of new business practices and distort the robust digital marketplace, while picking winners and losers.
Additionally, those FCC regulations circumvented the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) superior expertise in this field by encroaching upon its existing regulations upon which the Internet economy had relied for years. The FTC’s proven framework protected consumers for decades, while obviously allowing the Internet to flourish as it did. But the FCC went rogue, insisting on inserting itself into more areas of American consumers’ daily lives, and disrupting a robust marketplace with a “solution” where no problem existed.
Fortunately, Congress is set to act by rescinding the Obama FCC’s ill-advised regulation. The Congressional Review Act (CRA), which was enacted as part of the Contract with America reforms, allows Congress to rein in rogue administrative agency regulations and prevent future agencies from reimposing them in the future. It remained an ineffective tool when the threat of an Obama veto loomed, but with Donald Trump now in the White House, Congress has begun using the CRA to rescind costly and improper regulations.
Now, the Senate stands ready to eliminate the Obama FCC’s destructive last-hour “privacy” regulation this week.
And they can use your help.
Contact your Senators and tell them to put the CRA to use and rescind the FCC’s rule. The best way to protect privacy and strengthen the internet economy is to build from the successful and established framework established by the FTC, not the Obama FCC’s scheme.
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