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Sen. Jim DeMint (R - South Carolina) recently cosponsored an amendment with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison prohibiting the FCC from enforcing new Net Neutrality regulations. Net Neutrality regulations prevent Internet Service Providers from restricting access to certain internet resources and content in an effort to control the market (e.g. the exclusion of a Google Voice application from the iPhone app store because it might compete with services offered by AT&T). Members of the telecom industry therefore oppose Net Neutrality regulations. During the 2008 election cycle, DeMint's leadership PAC, MINT PAC, accepted thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the telecom industry, including AT&T ($10,000), Comcast ($8,000), the National Cable & Telecommunications Association ($5,000), and Verizon ($5,000). To date, MINT PAC has received $2,000 from Verizon for the 2010 campaign cycle. DeMint sits on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, which has jurisdiction over communications.

"Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), who often adopts anti-consumer positions on telecommunications policy, has written a so-called "killer amendment" that would prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from enforcing proposed Net Neutrality rules. Her amendment, informally proposed Monday as part of a House Interior Appropriations spending measure (H.R. 2996) states: Purpose: To prohibit the FCC from expending any funds in fiscal year 2010 to implement any Internet neutrality or network management principles, or to promulgate any rules relating to such principles. One possible explanation for the sudden, strong interest by Hutchison and other Republicans to oppose Net Neutrality can be found in their respective bank accounts. Hutchison accepted $67,300 in campaign contributions just from AT&T, her ninth largest contributor. Combined, AT&T donated more than $400,000 among the six Republicans opposing Net Neutrality, and one of those senators, John Thune, used to work for a DC lobbying firm that was hired by Comcast. The details were compiled by Sam Gustin, a reporter for DailyFinance: Over the course of his career, Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, has received $220,914 from "telephone utilities," including some $83,130 from AT&T, his second-largest donor, in the form of employee and lobbyist donations to his campaign and political-action committees. Sprint Nextel has given Brownback $35,550 over the course of his career. Two of the co-sponsors of the bill, Sen. David Vitter of Lousiana and Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, who have both seen their reputations tarnished after sex scandals, have been on the receiving end of AT&T's largesse. AT&T and predecessor BellSouth have donated $82,050 to Vitter's campaigns and political-action committees. And over the last four years, AT&T has donated some $61,250 to Ensign's campaign and political-action committees. Verizon-related entities donated $46,600 to Ensign during that pe