Congressman Chip Pickering Delivers COMPTEL Keynote Address

Net neutrality supporter Rep. Chip Pickering Jr., R-Miss., will deliver the keynote speech to COMPTEL PLUS Fall 2008 attendees Monday.

“Congressman Pickering has been an extremely thoughtful and effective leader in Washington for many years, and his efforts to promote a fair and competitive communications marketplace have been commended by industry and fellow members of Congress on both aisles,” said Matt Salmon, COMPTEL president, in a prepared statement.

Pickering — named a COMPTEL Champion of Competition in 2003 — earlier this year worked with Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., to introduce the Internet Freedom Preservation Act. If passed, the law would port nondiscrimination philosophies from Title II of the 1934 Communications Act to Title I, where they would apply to broadband.

The four amendments in the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008 echo the FCC’s broadband policy statement in their support of freedom to use networks lawfully. They go a few steps further, however, by underscoring broadband and the Internet as economically and democratically important.

The Internet Freedom bill has yet to move past subcommittee hearings.

Pickering is in the midst of his sixth term in Congress. He serves on the House Energy & Commerce Committee, the Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee and is assistant minority whip. Between 2007 and 2008, he received a total of $36,500 from telecom utilities, and services and equipment providers, according to OpenSecrets.org.

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