In what is being largely seen as an attempt to break a longstanding legal and policy holdup on the Net Neutrality issue, California Congressman Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, will soon release his legislative proposal for new open-Internet rules.

Going by a draft of the bill leaked by the Washington D. C. newspaper The Hill, the Waxman bill, in its current form, will seek the inclusion of basic Net Neutrality principles in federal communications law; however, only till the end of
2012, after which the rules be subject to re-assessment and renewal by Congress.

According to the Tech Daily Dose’s leaked version of the bill, the Waxman proposal will essentially prohibit Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from “unjustly or unreasonably discriminating in transmitting lawful traffic over a consumer's wireline broadband Internet access service.”

The proposal, as per the leak, will neither allow the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to classify ISPs as common carriers nor will it give the agency any new rulemaking authorities regarding ISPs. Nonetheless, it will allow the FCC to enforce the legislation on a “case-by-case” basis; with the violators facing penalties up to $2 million per judgment.

Noting that the Waxman bill has certain “positive elements,” staunch anti-net neutrality groups like Randolph May’s Free State Foundation said: “Overall, the draft bill provides a basis for Congress moving forward to consider adoption of broadband legislation that gives direction to the Commission.”