GOP victories could affect education funding, ed tech

“We’ve been successful in keeping bipartisan support for ed tech” in the past, she said. But the new Republican leadership in the House promises to focus on deficit reduction—and “no one has identified where these cuts are going to come from. … At this point, everything’s on the table.”

General technology policy

The resurgence of a Republican majority in the House also could affect general technology policy, especially when it comes to net neutrality—the idea that internet service providers (ISPs) should not be allowed to discriminate against certain types of traffic flowing over their lines.

In September, House Republicans rejected a bill that would have have forbidden ISPs to “unjustly or unreasonably discriminate in transmitting lawful traffic over a consumer’s wireline broadband internet access service.” The bill also would have given the FCC some “case-by-case” fine-making authority (up to $2 million per incidence). The bill—which was “an interim measure to protect net neutrality while Congress considers a permanent solution,” according to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.—would have denied the FCC any authority to regulate ISPs as common carriers, and it excluded wireless broadband from the scenario.

With a Republican majority, net neutrality now seems like a dead issue. House Republicans could block any Senate attempts to deal with the topic, and if the FCC were to act on its own, the House could hold hearings to questions the agency’s actions and use the federal appropriations process to limit its operating funds.

The election results also will alter the leadership of key technology and telecommunications committees. Rep. Rick Boucher, the Virginia Democrat who headed the House Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, lost his reelection bid to challenger Morgan Griffith and won’t serve in the next Congress. Boucher had been at the forefront of the online privacy debate and had led efforts to free up airwaves for more mobile phone and data use.

The ranking Republican member of the telecom subcommittee, Rep. Cliff Stears of Florida, is in line to be the new chairman. Stearns collaborated with Boucher earlier this year on a bill that would protect internet users’ privacy, and so that issue might remain on the legislative agenda if he’s the new subcommittee chairman.

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