Congressional Review Act Not a 2025 Option for Net Neutrality, Religious Broadcasters Say

WASHINGTON, July 31, 2024 – Because of bad timing, a federal law that Congress may use to overturn agency regulations won't be available early next year in case a Republican-controlled Congress wanted to nullify Net Neutrality rules adopted in April.

That's the take of the National Religious Broadcasters, which explained that the Net Neutrality rules passed by the Federal Communications Commission under Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel looked like they were safe from repeal under the Congressional Review Act in 2025.

The CRA, passed in 1996, would allow the House and Senate, assuming Republican control in 2025, to reach back 60 legislative days into 2024 to overturn agency regulations. A Republican in the White House would also simplify the task.

In 2017, the House and Senate, both under Republican control, used the 60-day window to void Internet privacy rules adopted by the Democratic-controlled FCC in late 2016. President Trump signed the resolution.

But NRB said because the Net Neutrality rules were adopted in April, that would put them outside the 60-day window, also called the “look back” provision.

“In anticipation of that deadline, contentious FCC rulemakings such as net neutrality… [were] finalized before that deadline and therefore will not be subject to CRA review,” NRB said.

The blog post was published on July 26, just three days after Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., introduced a joint resolution under the CRA to nullify Net Neutrality passed by FCC Democrats. In May, Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio., chairman of the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, issued the same resolution.

NRB noted that because a CRA resolution typically requires unified party control, the procedure often acted more like a “signal of disapproval rather than actually reversing a regulation.”

With Democrats in control of the Senate, the Republican-drafted CRA resolutions have little chance of taking down the Net Neutrality rule this year.

NRB stressed the need of putting a spotlight on the FCC to show Republican disapproval not only of Net Neutrality but also the FCC’s digital discrimination  rules, which can hold ISPs liable for unintentional discrimination in the deployment of broadband infrastructure.

“The coming months will reveal the extent of the FCC’s determination to finalize any controversial rules before the end of the year,” NRB said.

On its website, NRB says it is "an international association of Christian communicators with more than 1,100 member organizations reaching millions of viewers, listeners, and readers. The Association exists to represent the Christian broadcasters’ right to communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world."