The prospect of a seemingly inevitable government shutdown had the United States congress transfixed on Friday, but the House of Representatives also faced another deadline of midnight on December 21—the deadline to gather 37 signatures of House reps needed to force a vote on reviving net neutrality rules.

As AVN.com has covered extensively, net neutrality rules guarantee that the internet is treated the same as any public utility, with equal access for all users to any resource online. In other words, internet service providers may not slow or block traffic to, for example, a porn site while allowing users easy access to Netflix.

One year ago, the Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal the Obama-era net neutrality regulations that had been in place since 2015, a repeal that finally took effect on June 11. But in May, using a “discharge petition,” Senate Democrats forced a vote on reinstating the rules—a resolution which passed 52-47.

The House circulated its own petition to force a vote, but over the past seven months have fallen 37 signatures short of the 218 required to make the net neutrality vote happen—with 16 of those missing signatures belonging to Democrats. Only one Republican, Mike Coffman of Colorado, has signed on.