Exclusive: Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn Says, ‘Eliminate Net Neutrality to Preserve an Open Internet’

Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn told Breitbart News that she hopes for the elimination of net neutrality with a Republican Congress and administration.

“I think that the chairman will move through the vote process and rescind the order and if that’s the way the chairman wants to proceed I am fine with that,” Blackburn explained of the Federal Communications Commission. “I think that the marketplace would appreciate it if there was a clean repeal of that order. It would get rid of Title II (public utility regulation). Then we can focus on light-touch regulation and preservation of an open internet, and focus on cybersecurity provisions and broadband expansions, and maybe focus on getting spectrum auction right.”

Congresswoman Blackburn discussed paid prioritization, in which content providers such as Netflix can pay Verizon to better handle its bandwidth. YouTube and Netflix, at peak hours, use half of the bandwidth in the United States. Congresswoman Blackburn said that the best way to handle this issue involves “content distributers and Internet service providers work[ing] this out at the negotiating table.”

Congresswoman Blackburn discussed the broadband internet’s importance to the economy, saying, “Rural broadband is the top education, economic development, and healthcare access issue in my district. I have 16 rural counties, and you do not get economic development and you cannot utilize telemedicine and remote monitoring and you cannot recruit companies and factories without consistent and steady broadband access.”

She told Breitbart News, “When it comes to broadband investment, you know this administration cannot achieve its goals for economic growth without broadband investment. It is the infrastructure issue of this decade.”