EDUCAUSE and Internet2 Praise House Judiciary Committee For Passing Legislation to Protect Internet Freedom

Washington, D.C., May 26, 2006-–The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee yesterday passed the "Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006" (HR 5417) introduced last week by F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Committee Chairman, and John Conyers Jr. (D-MI), Ranking Member of the Committee. The bill, which received bipartisan support from the committee, seeks to amend the Clayton Act, ensuring that network operators do not act as gatekeepers by blocking, screening, or discriminating against certain kinds of Internet traffic or creating segregated Internet highways for their own preferred services.

The following statement may be attributed to EDUCAUSE Vice President Mark Luker:
"EDUCAUSE and the entire higher education community are very pleased with the action taken by the House Judiciary Committee. In supporting network neutrality, Chairman Sensenbrenner and his colleagues have helped to preserve the Internet as an essential tool for education, commerce, and research. The Internet can only fulfill its potential if it remains the open, universal, non-discriminatory system it has always been, and HR 5417 makes clear that network providers will not be allowed to destroy this basic structure of the Internet."

The following statement may be attributed to Internet2 President and CEO Douglas Van Houweling:
"Delivering next-generation Internet technologies to homes and small businesses depends on retaining an open Internet that provides higher performance for all users, rather than an Internet that gives more control to carriers. We applaud the Judiciary Committee's vision in crafting policy with an eye towards the country's long-term national interests, protecting citizens from network operators' anti-competitive behavior that would serve to stifle innovation and free choice."

Learn more about the importance of this issue to higher education and the public at the EDUCAUSE Net Neutrality resource site at http://www.educause.edu/netneutrality.

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About EDUCAUSE

EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. The current membership comprises more than 2,200 colleges, universities, and educational organizations, including 250 corporations, with 17,000 active members. Learn more about EDUCAUSE at www.educause.edu.

About Internet2

Led by more than 200 U.S. universities working with industry and government, Internet2 develops and deploys advanced network applications and technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnerships among academia, industry, and government that helped foster today’s Internet in its infancy. For more information, visit www.internet2.edu.