Victory! Washington’s House overwhelmingly votes for net neutrality at the state level

Net neu­tral­i­ty may be in grave per­il at the fed­er­al lev­el, but states like Wash­ing­ton are step­ping up to pro­tect the idea of a free and open Internet.

By a vote of nine­ty-three to five, the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives on Fri­day adopt­ed leg­is­la­tion that would safe­guard net neu­tral­i­ty at the state lev­el. SHB 2282, prime spon­sored by State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Drew Hansen (D‑23rd Dis­trict: Bain­bridge Island) would pro­hib­it Inter­net ser­vice providers from block­ing or throt­tling law­ful con­tent. It would also pro­hib­it “paid pri­or­i­ti­za­tion” schemes.

“The net neu­tral­i­ty rules have been pro­tect­ing a free and open inter­net for some years now, and today’s vote shows we have broad bipar­ti­san sup­port for main­tain­ing these pro­tec­tions for Wash­ing­ton con­sumers even after they go away at the fed­er­al lev­el,” said Hansen in a state­ment.

Hansen worked to build sup­port for the bill with his Repub­li­can col­league Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Nor­ma Smith of Whid­bey Island.

“This is about pre­serv­ing a fair and free inter­net so all Wash­ing­to­ni­ans can par­tic­i­pate equal­ly in the 21st cen­tu­ry econ­o­my,” said Smith.

“I am heart­ened by the over­whelm­ing show of sup­port this bill received today, and am proud to have worked close­ly with Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Hansen to ensure we are pro­tect­ing every­one in Wash­ing­ton state from the unin­tend­ed con­se­quences of a con­sol­i­da­tion of pow­er,” she added. “Net neu­tral­i­ty is an issue of tremen­dous impor­tance that will mat­ter today, tomor­row and gen­er­a­tions from now. We have to get this right, and today was a good first step.”

We strong­ly agree and we thank Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Hansen and Smith for bring­ing this bill to the floor and ensur­ing it sailed out of the House with strong support.

The roll call on SHB 2282 was as follows:

Roll Call
SHB 2282
Net neutrality
Final Passage
2/9/2018

Yeas: 93; Nays: 5

Vot­ing Yea: Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Apple­ton, Barkis, Bergquist, Blake, Caldier, Chan­dler, Chap­man, Clib­born, Cody, Con­dot­ta, DeBolt, Dent, Doglio, Dolan, Eslick, Fey, Fitzgib­bon, Frame, Good­man, Graves, Gregerson, Grif­fey, Haler, Hansen, Har­grove, Harmsworth, Har­ris, Hayes, Holy, Hud­gins, Irwin, Jenkin, Jink­ins, John­son, Kagi, Kil­duff, Kir­by, Klip­pert, Klo­ba, Kraft, Kretz, Kris­tiansen, Lovick, Lyt­ton, MacEwen, Macri, Man­weller, May­cum­ber, McBride, McCabe, McCaslin, McDon­ald, Mor­ris, Muri, Nealey, Orcutt, Orms­by, Ortiz-Self, Orwall, Pel­lic­ciot­ti, Peter­son, Pet­ti­grew, Pike, Pol­let, Reeves, Ric­cel­li, Robin­son, Rodne, Ryu, San­tos, Sawyer, Schmick, Sells, Senn, Shea, Slat­ter, Smith, Springer, Stam­baugh, Stan­ford, Steele, Stonier, Sul­li­van, Tar­leton, Tay­lor, Tharinger, Valdez, Van Wer­ven, Volz, Walsh, Wylie, Young, Chopp

Vot­ing Nay: Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Buys, Dye, Stokes­bary, Vick, Wilcox

Five Repub­li­cans — Vin­cent Buys, Mary Due, Drew Stokes­bary, Bran­don Vick, and J.T. Wilcox — vot­ed against the bill. Every oth­er mem­ber of the House vot­ed aye.

The House passed a dif­fer­ent net neu­tral­i­ty bill last ses­sion, but it went nowhere in the Sen­ate because Sen­ate Repub­li­cans were not inter­est­ed in it.

Now that the Sen­ate is under Demo­c­ra­t­ic man­age­ment, the bill has a good chance of pass­ing and reach­ing Gov­er­nor Inslee’s desk. We’ll cer­tain­ly be doing our part to make that hap­pen. Net neu­tral­i­ty is the key to keep­ing the Inter­net free and open.