The Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement (COPE) Act of 2006 () was a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives. It was part of a major overhaul of the

Telecommunications Act of 1996 The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a United States federal law enacted by the 104th United States Congress on January 3, 1996, and signed into law on February 8, 1996, by President Bill Clinton. It primarily amended Chapter 5 of Title 47 of ...

being considered by the US Congress. The Act was sponsored by Commerce Committee Chairman

Joe Barton Joseph Linus Barton (born September 15, 1949) is an American politician who represented in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1985 to 2019. The district included Arlington, part of Fort Worth, and several small towns and rural areas south ...

(R-TX), Rep.

Fred Upton Frederick Stephen Upton (born April 23, 1953) is an American politician serving as a U.S. representative from Michigan since 1987, representing the state's 6th congressional district since 1993. He is a member of the Republican Party. His dist ...

(R-MI), Rep. Charles Pickering (R-MS) and Rep.

Bobby Rush Bobby Lee Rush (born November 23, 1946) is an American politician, activist and pastor who served as the U.S. representative for for three decades. A civil rights activist during the 1960s, Rush co-founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Pant ...

(D-IL).

Overview

The last version of the Act (HR 5252) included

network neutrality Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of co ...

provisions defined by the

FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...

. An amendment offered by Rep.

Ed Markey Edward John Markey (born July 11, 1946) is an American lawyer, politician, and former Army reservist who has served as the junior United States senator from Massachusetts since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the U.S. representa ...

(D-MA) would have supplemented these with a prohibition against service tiering, which would have prevented

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privat ...

s charging consumers more money in exchange for not reducing their Internet speed. The COPE Act was passed by the full House on June 8, 2006; the Markey Amendment failed, leaving the final bill without meaningful network neutrality provisions. The

US Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...

was also involved in the issue. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced the Internet Nondiscrimination Act of 2006, and Senators

Olympia Snowe Olympia Jean Snowe (; born February 21, 1947) is an American businesswoman and politician who was a United States Senator from Maine from 1995 to 2013. Snowe, a member of the Republican Party, became known for her ability to influence the outcom ...

(R-ME) and

Byron Dorgan Byron Leslie Dorgan (born May 14, 1942) is an American author, businessman and former politician who served as a United States Representative (1981–1992) and United States Senator (1992–2011) from North Dakota. He is member of the Democratic ...

(D-ND) were expected to introduce a bipartisan amendment supporting

net neutrality Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of co ...

when the Senate took up its own rewrite (the "Communications, Consumer's Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006", aka S. 268

) of the

later that year. The bill would have created a single set of national video franchising rules that permit competitors to enter the market without obtaining thousands of individual city-by-city agreements. The legislation would have protected fees paid to local authorities, preserved

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

educational Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...

and government programming, and provided federal consumer protection and

customer service Customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company to those people who buy or use its products or services. Each industry requires different levels of customer service, but in the end, the idea of a well-performed service is that ...

standards. The bill was lobbied for by

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile te ...

and received support from

Verizon Communications Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in ...

whilst organizations such as

Save the Internet Save the Internet is a coalition of individuals, businesses, and non-profit organizations working for the preservation of Net neutrality. The site encourages taking action against discrimination of bandwidth distribution on the Internet. History ...

and Common Cause have opposed it.

Notes

References

* Document, description of the Communications Act of 2006 *Library of Congress
H.R.5252-RS - 29 September 2006 - 109-355
Communications Act of 2006 (text of the proposed legislation) *Library of Congress
H.R.5252 - All Congressional Actions w/Amendments
All speeches, amendments on the House Floor, 1 May 2006 through 29 September 2006 (ongoing)

External links

by John Nichols, ''The Nation'', June 9, 2006

by Tom Lasseter, BBC, June 9, 2006.
Full text of COPE 2006
(pdf)
U.S. House Record of the Roll Call Vote on the Markey Amendment

WashingtonWatch.com page on H.R. 5252: The Communications Act of 2006

Communications, Opportunity and Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006
(PDF) {{DEFAULTSORT:Communications Opportunity, Promotion And Enhancement Bill Of 2006 Proposed legislation of the 109th United States Congress Telecommunications in the United States Net neutrality

Overview

See also

Notes

References

External links