386tlnitn1 ~tatrs ~rnetr WASHINGTON. DC 20510 
The Honorable Ajit Pai 
Chairman 
Federal Communications Commission 
445 12th Street SW 
Washington, DC 20554 
Dear Chairman Pai, 
May 9, 2017 
We write to convey our strong opposition to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would 
undermine the Open Internet Order and gut critical net neutrality protections. 
Net neutrality rules protect the free flow of ideas that are creating new industries, educating our 
youth, promoting free speech, and supporting the communications that we rely on every day. 
Without the Open Internet Order, Internet Service Providers could discriminate against certain 
services, potentially distorting competition, stifling innovation, and hampering user choice and 
fTee expression. Eliminating the Open Internet Order and reclassifying broadband as an 
information service will also prohibit the FCC from adopting other important protections, such as 
expanding the Lifeline program to broadband, protecting subscribers' broadband privacy, and 
promoting broadband competition. 
While you claim you support a free and open internet, you also want to reclassify broadband 
back to an information service. Yet, in 2010, the Commission attempted to put net neutrality 
rules in place without reclassifying under Title II of the Communications Act, and the D.C. 
Circuit Court eventually invalidated those rules in Verizon v. FCC. The FCC, in correctly 
reading the Verizon decision, went back in 2015 and adopted the Open Internet Order, which 
reclassified broadband as a telecommunication service under Title II. The D.C. Circuit upheld 
the rules in its 2016 decision: US Telecom Association v. FCC. The issue is settled. We urge 
you not to repeat past mistakes and ask instead that you maintain the successful current regime. 
We also oppose efforts to put "voluntary guidelines" in place. Voluntary guidelines do not 
provide the certainty needed to entrepreneurs, innovators, and anyone else with an idea that they 
can access potential viewers and customers, and still leaves the essential internet gatekeeper 
function in the hands of the few and powerful. 
It was Congress' intent to preserve the FCC's authority to forestall threats to competition and 
innovation in telecommunications services, even as the technologies used to offer those services 
evolve over time. Broadband has become the single most important telecommunications service 
Americans use to transmit information to one another, and it has become clear that innovators, 
businesses, and consumers overwhelmingly view broadband as a telecommunications service. 
Just a few years ago, four million voices told the FCC that both our economy and the free 
expression of ideas depend on the open internet. The same holds true today. We urge you to 
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revoke this harmful proposed rule and protect the free and open internet by maintaining and 
enforcing the Open Internet Order. 
Sincerely, 
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United States Senator Uruted States S,-:e!!:nai:;.liWol--.... 
United States Senator 
Tom Udall 
United States Senator 
United States Senator 
Kirsten Gillibrand 
United States Senator 
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United States Senator 
Martin Heinrich 
United States Senator 
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