As a student who goes to school online, I rely on having open access to the internet. Unfortunately, that is being threatened due to the failure by Congress to take action on net neutrality. Net neutrality is a simple concept, that broadband providers and tech platforms should have to treat all web traffic equally. As politicians are prone to do, a simple concept is made complicated and the House of Representatives has passed net neutrality legislation that goes far beyond securing a fair and open internet for consumers. The House bill instead regulates internet providers as a utility - a divisive solution that could result in more regulation. More regulation would likely then lead to internet providers being afraid to further invest in their networks – which means no increase in speeds or bandwidth for consumers and likely no new deployment of new broadband infrastructure. I hope the Senate will take a compromise approach and work in a bipartisan way to find a solution that can achieve the 60-vote threshold needed in the Senate. This issue is just too important and I hope Sens. Tester and Daines will bring some Montana common sense and work to get something done.

Ashley Fay