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A few months ago, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) asked a number of Internet providers to vowthat they'd never set up controversial Internet "fast lanes" where some Web sites would get sped up over others. So-called "paid prioritzation," he said then, would divide the Internet into haves and have-nots. The ISPs should commit to swearing off such fast lanes, Leahy said.

But in their responses, the companies Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Charter didn't give him the promisehe was looking for. So now, the Vermont Democrat is calling them outfor an "unfortunate" failure to comply.

"This is disappointing," Leahy said in a statement Friday. "I was disappointed that some Internet service providers in their responses brushed aside these concerns dismissively."

Although the ISPs told him they didn'tcurrently have plans to engage in paid prioritization, they declined to rule out starting such programs in the future, as Leahy asked.

Leahy's requestwas unlikely to ever lead anywhere significant; the whole reason broadband companies are fighting federal regulators on net neutralityis becausemany wouldlike the freedom to engage in paid prioritization if theywanted to. It wouldn't make sense for them to box themselves into a corner. So the chairman's move was largely symbolic.

Still, the ISPs' silence on paid prioritization speaks volumes about their intentions.

Read Leahy's full statement here. Here also are his initial letters to the Internet providers, and their responses. I've asked the companies involved to comment, and will update if and when they reply.

Brian Fung covers technology for The Washington Post, focusing on telecom, broadband and digital politics. Before joining the Post, he was the technology correspondent for National Journal and an associate editor at the Atlantic.

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A top Democrat is trying to shame Internet providers for not renouncing fast lanes

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New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said hes still considering paying for affordable housing by seeking to raise taxes on wealthy non-residents who own luxury apartments.

One idea, proposed in September by the Fiscal Policy Institute, a union-backed research group, would raise about $665 million annually by requiring part-time New Yorkers to pay surcharges on dwellings valued at more than $5 million. Absentee owners pay no city or state income taxes.

There are a number of different proposals related to housing and affordable housing, but we have not ruled in or ruled out anything, de Blasio, a Democrat, said today during a news briefing in the Bronx.

The New York Post, citing an unidentified person, reported yesterday that officials in the de Blasio administration had ruled out a pied-a-terre tax because of the political challenges of getting it approved in Albany, where Republicans will control the Senate next year. De Blasio said the proposal is among several under consideration by his administration for a legislative agenda to be presented next month.

De Blasio, 53, assumed office Jan. 1 advocating a tax on incomes over $500,000 to pay for universal all-day pre-kindergarten, for which he failed to win state approval. The legislature agreed to give the city $300 million as part of a state-wide preschool program.

The mayor, who must present a preliminary budget for fiscal 2016 by the first week in February, has an agenda that includes 200,000 affordable-housing units, college scholarships, job training and reduced class sizes in schools.

The Real Estate Board of New York, the trade group for an industry that in 2012 accounted for 37 percent of the citys $41 billion tax revenue, opposes such a plan, saying it would harm the citys economy by suppressing investment, cutting jobs and lowering demand for high-priced apartment towers.

The United Federation of Teachers this week called for the city to pay for reduced class sizes by barring non-resident owners of expensive apartments from benefiting from tax abatements.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Long Island Republican, has said he opposes a tax increase on pieds-a-terre. Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who built a campaign treasury of more than $30 million by accepting donations from corporate executives and real-estate developers, campaigned for re-election vowing to reverse the mentality of New York as the tax capital of the nation.

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