Republicans in Congress let net neutrality rules live on (for now)

A Republican proposal to put anti-net neutrality provisions into a government spending bill has been dropped.

House leaders from both major parties struck a deal late Tuesday night on a $1.1 trillion spending bill and tax breaks. Earlier versions of this bill would have withheld funding from the Federal Communications Commission in order to prevent implementation of net neutrality rules until Internet service providers exhaust all their appeals. Earlier versions also would have imposed new reporting requirements on the FCC and prohibited the commission from regulating Internet service rates.

The compromise budget bill (full text here) did not include those provisions. Tech companies, Democratic members of Congress, and the White House had all pressured Republicans to drop the anti-net neutrality proposals.

Republicans have put forth several proposals to overturn or limit the FCC's net neutrality order this year, so the budget compromise isn't necessarily a final victory for Democrats. But the biggest threat to the FCC's rules likely come from the lawsuit filed by broadband providers, which should be decided within the next few months.

The FCC's net neutrality order reclassified Internet providers as common carriers and issued rules against blocking or throttling traffic or giving priority to Web services in exchange for payment.

Separately, the compromise spending bill "includes a nine-month extension of the Internet Tax Freedom Act, which bars state and local governments from taxing the monthly bills customers pay for Internet service," The Hill reported today. Congress has been discussing making that extension permanent, and talks on the issue will continue next year.