36
Telecommunications Act legislative history “demonstrates
that Congress never delegated to the Commission” authority
to regulate broadband service as a telecommunications
service. Members of Congress for Pet’rs Amicus Br. 4. In
support, they point out that Congress has repeatedly tried and
failed to enact open internet legislation, confirming, in their
view, that the Commission lacks authority to issue open
internet rules. But as the Supreme Court has made clear,
courts do not regard Congress’s “attention” to a matter
subsequently resolved by an agency pursuant to statutory
authority as “legislative history demonstrating a congressional
construction of the meaning of the statute.” American
Trucking Ass’ns v. Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railway
Co., 387 U.S. 397, 416–17 (1967). Following this approach,
we have rejected attempts to use legislative history to cabin an
agency’s statutory authority in the manner amici propose. For
example, in Advanced Micro Devices v. Civil Aeronautics
Board, petitioners challenged the Civil Aeronautics Board’s
rules adopting a more deferential approach to the regulation
of international cargo rates. 742 F.2d 1520, 1527–28 (D.C.
Cir. 1984). Petitioners asserted that the Board had no
authority to promulgate the rules because “Congress
deliberately eschewed the course now advanced by the
[Board],” id. at 1541, when it tried and failed to enact
legislation that would have put “limits on the Board’s
ratemaking functions regarding international cargo,” id. at
1523. Rejecting petitioners’ argument, we explained that
“Congress’s failure to enact legislation . . . d[oes] not
preclude analogous rulemaking.”
Id. at 1542 (citing
American Trucking Ass’ns, 387 U.S. at 416–18). In that case,
as here, the relevant question was whether the agency had
statutory authority to promulgate its regulations, and, as we
explained, “congressional inaction or congressional action
short of the enactment of positive law . . . is often entitled to
no weight” in answering that question. Id. at 1541. Amici
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents