the vision of the landmark 1996 Telecommunications Act was that the phone companies and cable companies would, for the first time, compete with each other in each other's markets.

We are not suggesting that you and your cable partners should be compelled to operate a cell phone service if you determine it is not economical and not in the interest of your shareholders.

We will continue to examine these issues carefully.

We very much hope and we expect that the regulators at Justice and the FCC will carefully examine the record.

Well, the law was signed in 2005 by former President Bush. Did it take DHS 6 years to start doing the guidance and now we are about ready to get to it?

I would be happy to invite her, and I invite the gentleman from Michigan to help us prod her into following the law that was passed.

Well, in my high school civics class, I learned in a democratic society that laws that are passed by a majority vote of the legislature and signed either by the President or the governor are the law.

Is DHS going to extend the deadline again?

I believe it is not effective at this time.

Okay. Now, my final question is there has been a disconnect between DHS and the states, both in this Administration and in the Bush Administration on this subject.

I think one of the ways to get the ball over the goal on this--and I realize as the author of the bill that this is a complicated bill--is, first of all, states need guidance.

All right.

I think going through a Federal government is the least efficient way of pooling those risks and taking care of those individuals.

I want to make sure that we can actually develop a piece of legislation that we can pass so we can start moving that football forward.

I think that is exactly the way that this health care was designed. It was designed to lead to government takeover of the health care system basically a single-payer system.

I mean, put yourself in the position of a business owner trying to comply with currently 15,000 pages, and that is just simply going to grow, and then take a look at the cost equation.

That is the one that keeps you awake at night. Me, too. I think it is extremely important.

I think we just established that the level of debt and deficit is a security threat.