FCC Poised to Adopt Network Neutrality Rules

WASHINGTON – The head of the Federal Communications Commission has enough support to pass controversial new rules that will prohibit phone and cable companies from discriminating against or favoring Internet traffic flowing over their broadband networks.

More than a year after FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski pledged to put in place so-called "network neutrality" regulations, the agency is poised to adopt those rules at a meeting on Tuesday.

Although the two Republicans who sit on the five-member commission are firmly opposed to the plan, Genachowski's two Democratic colleagues have both said they will vote to let the proposal pass. Those two Democrats, Mignon Clyburn and Michael Copps, have both said they still have reservations about the rules, however.