• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, October 4, 2009

Two Republican lawmakers say the Federal Communications Commission should put the brakes on a plan to craft new net neutrality rules.

"We believe that network neutrality would actually thwart further broadband investment and availability," Reps. John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Friday in a letter to President Barack Obama.

The lawmakers are asking Obama to urge the FCC to "refocus its priorities on properly examining the broadband market and completing its broadband plan."

Two weeks ago, FCC chair Julius Genachowski proposed that the agency codify its 2005 Internet policy statement, which says that Web users should be able to access all lawful content, applications and services, and that they should be permitted to attach devices to the network. He also proposed two additional principles -- that network providers not discriminate against any lawful content and that they disclose traffic management practices. In addition, Genachowski said neutrality principles should also apply to wireless networks.

The proposal drew mixed reactions. Broadband advocates cheered Genachowski's move, but also said the proposed new rules did not represent a drastic break with the past. On the contrary, they argued, the proposed regulations were extensions of existing policies and holdings, including last year's decision to sanction Comcast for blocking peer-to-peer traffic.

Some Internet service providers questioned whether new rules were necessary. Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen wrote in a blog post that it's "fair to ask whether increased regulation of the Internet is a solution in search of a problem."

Obama himself has long been on record as a supporter of neutrality principles. In fact, the same day that Genachowski unveiled the proposal, Obama said he was "pleased" with the step -- a response that broadband advocacy group Public Knowledge noted on Friday.

"The President has it exactly right," Public Knowledge President and co-founder Gigi Sohn said in a statement. "Investment in the Internet will flourish in the future, as it did in the past, once entrepreneurs of all sizes know that they will be able to reach consumers, while consumers will drive demand for Internet services by creating and using all sorts of new Internet-based features and services."

The advocacy group Open Internet Coalition also said that the rules proposed by Genachowski would not represent a "radical policy u-turn."

"The Internet existed for more than 25 years under a neutral regime," the organization said. "To suggest that a return to that status quo threatens broadband investment is not borne out by experience."