• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, February 11, 2016

A House panel has approved a measure that would prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from regulating the price of broadband.

The two-paragraph “No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act," introduced by Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois) and Greg Walden (R-Oregon), states that the FCC can't "regulate the rates charged for broadband Internet access service." The House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology passed the bill today by a vote of 15-11.

The bill's language might sound simple, but net neutrality advocates say it could be interpreted to prohibit the FCC from getting involved in many controversies currently surrounding broadband access -- including concerns about providers' use of data caps. Those concerns are taking on a new urgency now that four large broadband providers -- Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile -- are exempting some material from subscribers' monthly data limits.

"Under the Kinzinger bill, broadband providers could try to characterize any and every determination the FCC makes as a rate regulation," Matt Wood, policy director at Free Press, writes in a Bloomberg BNA op-ed.

"We can argue about whether data caps, overage penalties, interconnection fees and sponsored-data charges are reasonable, or whether they’re instead monopoly abuses, double-charging schemes or threats to Net Neutrality. But Congress shouldn’t take the FCC out of that vital conversation," Wood writes.

Public Knowledge's Chris Lewis, vice president of government affairs, adds in a statement issued today that the bill "could potentially harm the ability for the FCC to expand broadband deployment through subsidies."

Harold Feld, senior vice president of Public Knowledge, added last month at a House hearing that the bill "virtually guarantees a host of unintended consequences." Among others, he said the bill could prevent the FCC from enforcing consumer protection laws, as well as policing overcharges and fraud.

Proponents say the measure will codify FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's promises to refrain from telling broadband providers how much to charge for Web service. When the FCC reclassified broadband access as a common carrier service, the agency also gained the authority to set rates. Wheeler has consistently said the agency had no intention of doing so, but the bill's supporters say it will prohibit future FCC members from setting rates.