Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) named Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) February 2019 Porker of the Month for spouting wild inaccuracies about the rebirth of internet freedom.

In advance of the February 7, 2019 House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology hearing on net neutrality regulations, subcommittee chairman Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) said that, “the FCC's repeal of these essential protections-known as net neutrality-has been a disaster for consumers.”  That fact-free quip set the tone for the hearing, which featured a slanted panel of witnesses who painted a distorted and largely inaccurate picture of internet regulations, as well as the need to dramatically revise current regulations over the internet.

In 2017, Federal Communications Commission passed the Restoring Internet Freedom Order (RIFO), overturning the imposition of Depression-era regulations that were imposed on the internet by the Obama administration in 2015.  Those regulations were based on a 1934 law intended for rotary-dialed telephones and significantly hampered broadband investment during the two years they were in effect.  After the RIFO was adopted, internet speeds increased by nearly 40 percent, and the U.S. rose from twelfth to sixth worldwide in broadband internet speed from 2017 to 2018.

CAGW President Tom Schatz said, “President Bill Clinton was correct back in 1996 when he said that the internet should be ‘unfettered by federal or state regulation.’  That bipartisan consensus was abandoned from 2015-17 in favor of a heavy-handed, outdated regulatory regime, which Chairman Doyle would like to resurrect.  Consumers have benefited greatly from the restoration of internet freedom, which is why those ineffective, unnecessary, and harmful ‘net neutrality’ regulations should remain consigned to the history books where they came from.”

For trying to undermine and tear down internet freedom, CAGW names Rep. Mike Doyle it’s February 2019 Porker of the Month.