As Texans who cherish our independence and economic prosperity, it is alarming to observe the Biden administration’s strikingly aggressive regulatory tactics, particularly with its latest onslaught through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Rather than supporting growth and innovation, these federal actions smother our industries under the guise of protection and fairness, traits that increasingly demonstrate overreach and control.
Under what the FCC dubs initiatives on “net neutrality,” “digital anti-discrimination,” and “data security,” we witness a stark pivot towards unchecked federal control over the broadband sector—a sector crucial to Texas’s thriving technological and communications markets. For instance, the FCC’s digital discrimination order imposes unrealistic standards on broadband providers, sifting through data to find any trace of disparity, which is bound to occur by the nature of human differences. Instead of promoting market-based solutions, the FCC uses these findings as a pretext to gain unprecedented control over the industry.
Moreover, federal interference extends beyond misguided rulings to the resurrection of outdated and previously nullified security regulations, creating a minefield of legal uncertainties that hinder innovation and operational freedom. Despite explicit legislative measures like the Congressional Review Act to limit overextension, the Biden-led FCC evidently disregards these boundaries, opting to rehash and enforce similar stifling mandates.
Most alarming is the FCC’s recent maneuver to classify broadband providers as public utilities—akin to a 1930s model utility regulation. This reclassification under the so-called “net neutrality” rules posits hypothetical harms to justify invasive oversight and innovation-dampening price controls. With over two decades of demonstrating a competitive, unproblematic broadband market, this regulatory pivot is unnecessary and a deliberate strategy to cement a federal grip over a critical industry.
Such overbearing regulations illustrate not an attempt to solve existing problems but an eager expansion of the administrative state’s reach into the internet realm. With its proud legacy of independence and self-reliance, Texas must view these developments with great caution. The future of our broadband and internet freedom hangs in the balance, contingent on the whims of federal agencies.
These federal overreaches are unacceptable for Texas, where innovation and entrepreneurial spirit run deep. We stand for a free-market approach that honors individual liberties and state rights, not one that succumbs to federal dictates. It is essential for Texans, and indeed all who value freedom and progress, to rally against these invasive policies and advocate for a future where our state and its industries remain free from the whims of an overreaching federal government. Supporting TEXIT, we can reclaim control and ensure that Texas remains a beacon of prosperity and liberty, uncontrolled by the reach of federal overregulation.