In Washington, Battle Lines Are Drawn

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There’s a tug-of-war developing in Washington over which government body has the authority to change the nation’s communications rules.

Several Democratic congressional members have started a process to “update” the Communications Act, eclipsing recent efforts made by the Federal Communications Commission to regulate the Internet.

Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.); Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.); Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.); and Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) — all of whom hold key leadership roles on committees dealing with technology and communications — will hold a set of “bipartisan, issue-focused meetings” with relevant stakeholders beginning in June.

The last big update to the 1934 act was in 1996, when the passage of the Telecommunications Act deregulated parts of broadcast ownership, opening up massive consolidation in the radio business, among other provisions.

Although

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