Thank you for taking the time to contact my office about your support for net neutrality. I appreciate hearing your views and am pleased to have the opportunity to respond.

Net neutrality is the principle that Internet Service Providers and governments regulating the Internet must treat all data on the Internet the same, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, website, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication. The open flow of information is important to our economy, education and our civic life.

Chairman Pai’s move to repeal the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order threatens the transparency and fairness that this notion relies on. If this administration and Chairman Pai are successful, this repeal will allow telecommunication companies to charge more for a tiered system where wealthy and powerful entities can pay to have their content delivered faster to consumers. Repeal is not just a rich vs. poor issue, but it allows large corporations to be able to decide what content is prioritized. This hinders smaller, independent websites ability to fairly compete in the market, leaving consumers with an obstructed access to the internet.

Again, thank you for contacting me about this important issue, and I hope you will continue to keep me apprised of the issues most important to you.