Instead, the bill will now allow these firms to ignore net neutrality rules that prevented content discrimination on the basis of price or speed and stimulated the growth of the Internet and the thousands of new companies and new voices it has encouraged. We'll have more when we get the confirmed vote count, but we understand that all committee Republicans present except Heather Wilson (R-NM) opposed Markey's pro-consumer, pro-democracy, pro-Internet, pro-business amendment. All Democrats presentexcept Ed Towns (D-NY), Gene Green (D-TX), Al Wynn (D-MD), Charlie Gonzalez (D-TX) and Bobby Rush (D-IL), supported Markey. These listed Dems, and all Republicans except Heather Wilson, opposed the amendment to keep the Internet free. For more information, see the PIRG-backed coalition of citizen groups of all stripes and a variety of technology companies: Savetheinternet.com. From a coalition release: "The diversity of this coalition underscores the importance of this issue," said Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet and Google's Chief Internet Evangelist. "When the Internet started, you didn't have to get permission to start companies. You just got on the Net and started your idea."