It appears that Senator Ted Stevens’ telecommunications bill (S.2686) — opposed by most senators who favor an unfettered Internet, due to its lack of true Net Neutrality protections — will not see a floor vote in this session (before Friday). With Senator Wyden’s threatened filibuster, Broadcasting & Cable Magazine reports this morning that Senator Bill Frist is unlikely to schedule a vote on this controversial bill until at least September.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens is still lining up the 60 he needs to defeat a threatened filibuster of the bill over its absence of strong network neutrality provisions. Frist has made it clear that he won’t schedule a vote until he can be assured it won’t take up floor time only to be mooted by a filibuster.” – Broadcasting & Cable
Given that it has been suggested that Stevens is working craftily to avoid a filibuster of his bill, I won’t believe we have escaped any procedural trickery until the Senate recesses on Friday, but this is a positive development.
Any calls and emails to senators on the fence on this bill will still be productive in assuring that Stevens does not get the 60 votes he needs to force this bill through in the lame duck session before the August recess begins.