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The FCC could save on future litigation costs if it hadn't passed net neutrality rules, one lawmaker says

Some Republican lawmakers questioned the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's new budget request Wednesday, with a couple of them attempting to tie the agency's funding to its controversial net neutrality vote days ago.

The FCC's vote last Thursday to impose new net neutrality rules on broadband providers will likely face a court challenge, Representative Bill Johnson, an Ohio Republican, said during a hearing before the communications subcommittee of House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Defending the net neutrality order "will not be costless," Johnson said. "Wouldn't the commission have saved a significant amount of money if it had let Congress legislate on net neutrality instead of moving forward an ill-fated ... order that it knows is going to be litigated for years?"

Johnson asked Jon Wilkins, the FCC's managing director, for a one-word answer to his question.

"No," Wilkins answered.

After a short pause, Johnson asked Wilkins to give a longer answer. The FCC's current budget request assumes the agency's current staffing will be able to handle any court challenges, and there are no additional budget requests for potential net neutrality lawsuits, Wilkins said. "In any given year, we'll have major litigation, we'll have major issues," and the FCC's staff is built to respond to them, he said.

Johnson pressed the issue. FCC attorneys don't respond to lawsuits "for free," he said. "If they weren't doing that, they would be doing other things that are meaningful and useful to the taxpayer."

Most lawmakers at the hearing steered clear of the net neutrality debate and focused more generally on the FCC's fiscal year 2016 budget request. The agency is asking for US$530 million, $84 million more than in fiscal year 2015. A big chunk of the requested increase, $51 million, would be to move to new headquarters or to consolidate operations in a smaller space at its current building. Either of those options would yield a projected $119 million in savings over 15 years, Wilkins said.

Another $21 million would go toward IT projects, with $15 million for replacing the agency's aging IT infrastructure, including the online public comment system that collapsed in June during a period of heavy net neutrality comment traffic.

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Republican lawmakers question FCC budget after net neutrality vote

Ben Carson, the conservative Republican presidential hopeful from West Palm Beach, generated a large burst of publicity for himself on Wednesday when he explained his theory about why homosexuality is a choice.

Carson, who is a retired neurosurgeon, said he knows it's a choice because people "go into prison straight, and when they come out they're gay."

He offered his views in an interview on CNN. Interviewer Chris Cuomo asked Carson if being gay is a choice, and Carson said, "absolutely."

After going into his prison theory, Carson continued, according to CNN: "So, did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question."

His comments produced a burst of reaction, and his name was a trending topic on Twitter, which also suggested two other commonly searched terms: "Ben Carson is crazy" and "Ben Carson prison." Major science-based medical organizations reject the notion that homosexuality is a choice.

Before a Presidents Day appearance at the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach, Carson told reporters that his opposition to same-sex marriage doesn't mean he's anti-gay. During one of his appearances on Fox News, he raised pedophilia and bestiality when explaining his opposition to same-sex marriage. He said at the Palm Beach event that he believes in equal rights "for everybody including gay people. I don't have anything against gay people."

During his speech before the Palm Beach Republican Club, Carson promised not to soft-pedal his views in order to avoid offending people. "I hate political correctness, and I will never yield to the PC police," he said.

Political strategists don't see Carson, who has never run for office, as a likely winner of the Republican presidential nomination. But he has a growing fan base among conservatives around the country.

Last week, a Quinnipiac Poll of Iowa Republicans, showed that in the first state in the nominating process, Carson was in fifth place with 11 percent. A nationwide Public Policy Polling survey had him in fourth place with 18 percent.

He exploded onto conservatives' radar two years ago with an in-your-face critique of Obamacare at the National Prayer Breakfast with the president sitting nearby on the dais.

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Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson says being gay is choice

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Texas Republican Rep. David Simpson wants to endmarijuana prohibition.

So, on Monday, he introduced a bill that would do just that: strike all language on marijuana from Texaslaw. Simpson says his opposition to prohibition is rooted in his faith I dont believe that when God made marijuana he made a mistake that government needs to fix, he said in a recent op-ed and hes not alone among conservatives.

There is a small but increasingly vocal shareofRepublicans who see the issue as one ofgovernmentoverreach.And their ranks and influence are growing.

As it stands, a strong majority of Republican millennials support legalizing the plant, according to a Pew Research survey: 63 percent of young Republicans support legalization, while 35 percent oppose it. And with millenials overtaking the baby boom generation in size,issues relevantto them will no doubt play a key role in the 2016 presidential election, Pew notes.

Just last week, potential presidential prospects Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and former Florida governor Jeb Bushwere asked where they stood on marijuana legalization. Both said they oppose it personally, but support states rights when it comes to legalization. But some rank-and-file Republicans would take it even further.

It disturbs me greatly that Republicans would distort the principles of small government, fiscal responsibility and personal liberty in such a way that they could support the failed principle of marijuana prohibition any longer, Ann Lee, co-founder and executive director of Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition, said in a statement promoting Simpsons bill.

Lee, 85, is a lifelong Houston Republican who came to support ending prohibition through her son, who discovered the medicinal uses of the plant after a workplace accident in 1990. She founded RAMP in 2012 andthegroup has been in touch with Simpsons office.

This is really achievable within Texas and we feel like other red states really need the GOP to be vocal on this issue, saysZoe Russell, RAMPs assistant executive director. RAMP also has a chapter in North Carolina and is working on expanding to Maine, Tennessee and Arizona, Russell says.

Once the state sessions are over, the group plans to shift focus topresidential politics.

Whoever gives us the best options within the GOP on marijuana policy, we want to push them as far as we can in the GOP field, Russell says.

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GovBeat: The Republican argument to end marijuana prohibition

Presidential hopefuls are making strategic forays into South Florida, hoping to prevent the state's favorite son Republicans from locking up all the money and support and position themselves if Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio falter.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who's generating intense national media interest and tops most recent polls of Republicans, will be in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday for a meet-and-greet session with leaders in the business, political and legal communities.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will be in Palm Beach on Friday, where he'll be the marquee speaker at a Republican dinner that will put him before a high-caliber audience, many of whom are in position to write checks to help finance a presidential campaign.

To insiders, even prominent figures like Walker and Christie and South Florida residents Rubio and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who formed a presidential exploratory committee on Tuesday, are all overshadowed by Bush, who served as governor from 1999 to 2007 and is the son of former President George H.W. Bush and brother of former President George W. Bush.

"I've got to believe that Jeb is getting everybody [in Florida] locked down and committed," said Bill Scherer, a prominent Fort Lauderdale lawyer who's been a fundraiser for both Bush presidents. "This is Jeb territory. Not just South Florida, but Florida."

Ed Pozzuoli, a former Broward Republican chairman who served as South Florida or Broward campaign chairman for presidential candidates Rudy Giuliani, George W. Bush and Bob Dole, said "ultimately, in my view Florida is Jeb Bush country."

But Florida is too important for the other potential Republicans to cede to Bush. Recent presidential candidate-visitors include U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, former Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich and former business executive Carly Fiorina.

One factor motivating candidate interest is Florida's position as the largest swing state in the country, awarding 29 electoral votes, more than 10 percent of the total needed to win the presidency. "If you don't win Florida, you're probably not going to win the presidency," said Michael Barnett, chairman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party.

Pozzuoli said it is "a long way from where we are today to the nomination. And so candidates who ignore Florida [do so] at their own peril. Because no matter whose math you look at, ultimately in order to become president of the United States, particularly for a Republican, you must win Florida."

Money is a huge factor.

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Republican presidential hopefuls seek Florida support