I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2136 
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure internet openness, 
to prohibit blocking of lawful content, applications, services, and non- 
harmful devices, to prohibit impairment or degradation of lawful internet 
traffic, to limit the authority of the Federal Communications Commission 
and to preempt State law with respect to internet openness obligations, 
to provide that broadband internet access service shall be considered 
to be an information service, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 8, 2019 
Mr. SMUCKER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure inter-
net openness, to prohibit blocking of lawful content, ap-
plications, services, and non-harmful devices, to prohibit 
impairment or degradation of lawful internet traffic, to 
limit the authority of the Federal Communications Com-
mission and to preempt State law with respect to inter-
net openness obligations, to provide that broadband 
internet access service shall be considered to be an infor-
mation service, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Open Internet Preser-
vation Act’’. 
SEC. 2. INTERNET OPENNESS. 
Title I of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 
U.S.C. 151 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the 
following: 
‘‘SEC. 14. INTERNET OPENNESS. 
‘‘(a) OBLIGATIONS OF BROADBAND INTERNET AC-
CESS SERVICE PROVIDERS.—A person engaged in the pro-
vision of broadband internet access service, insofar as such 
person is so engaged— 
‘‘(1) may not block lawful content, applications, 
services, or non-harmful devices, subject to reason-
able network management; and 
‘‘(2) may not impair or degrade lawful internet 
traffic on the basis of internet content, application, 
or service, or use of a non-harmful device, subject to 
reasonable network management. 
‘‘(b) COMMISSION AUTHORITY.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall en-
force the obligations established in subsection (a) 
and the obligations established in subsection (e)(2) 
through adjudication of complaints alleging viola-
tions of such respective subsection but may not, 
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under any provision of law, whether by rulemaking 
or otherwise— 
‘‘(A) expand the internet openness obliga-
tions for provision of broadband internet access 
service beyond the obligations established in 
subsection (a); or 
‘‘(B) expand the internet openness obliga-
tions for the offering or provision of specialized 
services beyond the obligations established in 
subsection (e)(2). 
‘‘(2) FORMAL COMPLAINT PROCEDURES.—Not 
later than 60 days after the date of the enactment 
of this section, the Commission shall adopt formal 
complaint procedures to address alleged violations of 
subsection (a) and alleged violations of subsection 
(e)(2). Such procedures shall include a deadline (rel-
ative to the date of filing of a complaint under such 
procedures) for the disposition of such complaint. 
‘‘(c) PREEMPTION OF STATE LAW.—No State or po-
litical subdivision of a State shall adopt, maintain, enforce, 
or impose or continue in effect any law, rule, regulation, 
duty, requirement, standard, or other provision having the 
force and effect of law relating to or with respect to inter-
net openness obligations for provision of broadband inter-
net access service. 
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‘‘(d) OTHER LAWS AND CONSIDERATIONS.—Nothing 
in this section— 
‘‘(1) supersedes any obligation or authorization 
a provider of broadband internet access service may 
have to address the needs of emergency communica-
tions or law enforcement, public safety, or national 
security authorities, consistent with or as permitted 
by applicable law, or limits the provider’s ability to 
do so; or 
‘‘(2) prohibits reasonable efforts by a provider 
of broadband internet access service to address copy-
right infringement or other unlawful activity. 
‘‘(e) SPECIALIZED SERVICES.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-
graph (2), nothing in this section shall be construed 
to limit the ability of broadband internet access serv-
ice providers to offer specialized services. 
‘‘(2) PROHIBITION ON CERTAIN PRACTICES.— 
Specialized services may not be offered or provided 
in ways that threaten the meaningful availability of 
broadband internet access service or that have been 
devised or promoted in a manner designed to evade 
the purposes of this section. 
‘‘(f) BROADBAND TO BE CONSIDERED INFORMATION 
SERVICE.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 
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the provision of broadband internet access service or any 
other mass-market retail service providing advanced tele-
communications capability (as defined in section 706 of 
the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (47 U.S.C. 1302)) 
shall be considered to be an information service. 
‘‘(g) REASONABLE NETWORK MANAGEMENT.—For 
purposes of subsection (a), a network management prac-
tice is reasonable if it is primarily used for and tailored 
to achieving a legitimate network management purpose, 
taking into account the particular network architecture 
and technology of the broadband internet access service. 
‘‘(h) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) BROADBAND
INTERNET
ACCESS
SERV-
ICE.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘broadband 
internet access service’ means a mass-market 
retail service by wire or radio that provides the 
capability to transmit data to and receive data 
from all or substantially all internet endpoints, 
including any capabilities that are incidental to 
and enable the operation of the communications 
service, but excluding dial-up internet access 
service. 
‘‘(B) 
FUNCTIONAL
EQUIVALENT; 
EVA-
SION.—Such term includes any service that— 
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‘‘(i) the Commission finds to be pro-
viding a functional equivalent of the service 
described in subparagraph (A); or 
‘‘(ii) is used to evade the obligations 
set forth in subsection (a). 
‘‘(2) NETWORK MANAGEMENT PRACTICE.—The 
term ‘network management practice’ means a prac-
tice that has a primarily technical network manage-
ment justification. Such term does not include other 
business practices. 
‘‘(3) SPECIALIZED SERVICES.—The term ‘spe-
cialized 
services’ 
means 
services 
other 
than 
broadband internet access service that are offered 
over the same network as, and that may share net-
work capacity with, broadband internet access serv-
ice.’’. 
SEC. 3. ELIGIBILITY OF BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS 
SERVICES FOR UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUNDS. 
Section 254 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 
U.S.C. 254) is amended— 
(1) in subsection (c), by adding at the end the 
following: 
‘‘(4) BROADBAND
INTERNET
ACCESS
SERV-
ICES.—Broadband internet access services (as de-
fined in section 14) shall be eligible to receive fund-
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